Page 10 - Umar Usman News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

* Farmers' livelihoods hollowed out by gunmen * Bandits demand protection money, kidnap ransoms * Rising food prices fuel cost-of-living crisis Nigerian farmer Bashir Sanni and his neighbors hoped they could buy their safety from groups of gunmen who terrorize the country's northwest with kidnappings for ransom and extortion. Residents of his village Birnin Tudu clubbed together to pay 10 million naira ($22,550) in protection money to a local armed group - as well as buying them two motorcycles and a cellphone.

The suspect allegedly confessed that he and other members of the syndicate operate in Borno, Bauchi, Kebbi and Sokoto States.

Borno State Police Command has confirmed that no fewer than 55 scrap metal collectors were killed in a series of attacks coordinated by ISWAP/Boko Haram

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Abdu Umar, made this known while speaking on the sideline of a security stakeholders’ meeting on Saturday in Maiduguri.

The Chairman of the Scrap Metal Association in the state said the victims of the Kala-Balge and Dikwa attacks were not their members