Lagos, Nigeria - Suspected armed robbers on a reprisal attack killed 19 people, including women and children, and injured seven in Ligyado village in Nigeria's northern Zamfara state Saturday, the private Sunday Trust newspaper reported.

Quoting eyewitnesses, the paper reported that the robbers who were armed with assault rifles and machetes raided the village, in retaliation against the role of its vigilantes in checkmating robbery in a nearby community.

It was the second such attack by the robbers, who also invaded two villages in Dansadau town in Maru Local Government Area less than two months ago, killing 10 persons, after many suspected armed robbers were lynched in the area.

In the latest attack, the robbers, numbering about 150, went from house to house, shooting or hacking to death anyone they encounter in the pre-dawn raid.

A brother of one of the victims, who identified himself as Ahmad Tsauri Lingyado, told the Sunday Trust that some villages survived the attack by fleeing into nearby corn fields.

“When they entered Malam Shehu’s house, they slaughtered him and his wife as well as his brother and his son,” the paper quoted him as saying.

The remains of those killed in the attack have been deposited in the mortuary of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Gusau, the Zamfara state capital, where the injured are also being treated.

Meanwhile, soldiers and policemen have been deployed to the area to help check the menace of the rampaging armed robbers.

Pana 03/10/2011