Death toll of northern Nigeria village attack rises to 58

ABUJA - The death toll of an attack in Nigeria's central north state of Kaduna has increased to 58 as more bodies were recovered on Monday, a local tribal chief said.

Zubairu Mai Gwari, the traditional leader of the Gwaska village which was attacked over the weekend by unknown gunmen, told reporters the death toll rose from 45 to 58 as local security operatives dug out bodies of some victims in the area.

Gwaskwa village is located in Birnin-Gwari, an area frequently attacked by gunmen in Kaduna.

Zubairu said more people are still missing, following the attack.

Local residents scampered for safety as the gunmen entered the village on Saturday, shooting indiscriminately.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai said the establishment of a permanent Battalion of the Nigerian Army in the Birnin Gwari general area has been approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Nigeria's police chief Ibrahim Idris has also announced the creation of a Birnin Gwari Police Area Command and two new divisional police headquarters as a means of beefing up security in the area.

In a move to track down the killers of Saturday's attack, the local police in Kaduna said combatant policemen have been assigned to comb Birnin Gwari.

Police spokesperson Mukhtar Aliyu told reporters in Kaduna city that no arrest has been made so far, but that the effort to arrest the killers has been intensified.

Mostly children were killed during the attack. The attackers were believed to have entered the village from the northwestern state of Zamfara, a neighboring state to Kaduna.

Gwaska village is an encircled village of about 3,000 inhabitants. The village was also set ablaze during the attack.