Kano: At least nine anti-polio campaigners were shot dead in northern Nigeria by gunmen suspected of belonging to a radical Islamist sect.
The attacks took place in Kano, the biggest city in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north, where families generally feel more comfortable allowing women inside their homes than men.
On Friday morning gunmen arrived by motor tricycle and opened fire in the Hotoro Hayi neighbourhood, killing at least eight female vaccinators, witnesses told Associated Press. Four people were killed in a second attack, in the Unguwa Uku neighbourhood, according to witnesses.
The final death toll remained unclear. A Kano police spokesman, Musa Magaji Majia, said the attacks killed nine people, all women, taking part in the vaccine drive and giving oral drops to children. A local hospital said it received only two bodies from the Unguwa Uku attack, with four others injured.
While officers said there were no immediate suspects for the shootings, witnesses said the Islamist militant group Boko Haram was responsible. The sect has been blamed for the deaths of some 1,400 people in central and northern Nigeria since 2010, including an attack in Kano in January 2012 that killed at least 185.
Nigeria is one of three countries where polio, which can cause irreversible paralysis within hours, remains endemic; the others are Afghanistan and Pakistan.
At least 16 health workers taking part in polio vaccination drives were killed in attacks in Pakistan in December and January.
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