Global rights group, Amnesty International, says bandits killed 1,126 villagers in Nigeria between January and June 2020.
The organisation said the most affected were villages in Southern Kaduna, where armed men killed at least 366 people in multiple attacks between January and July.
The AI said this in a report signed by its Director, Osai Ojigho, on Sunday
The organisation said it interviewed civilians in Kaduna, Katsina, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara states, who said they lived in fear of attacks and abduction as insecurity escalated in the rural areas.
Amnesty pointed out that many of those interviewed described how security forces often arrived hours after attacks had ended, even when officers had been given information about impending attacks.
Amnesty added that at least, 77 people had been killed since January 2020 in the ongoing communal clashes between the Jukun and Tiv ethnic groups in Taraba State.
The organisation said that on May 28, 2020, at least 74 people were reportedly killed in Sokoto State, when gunmen attacked four villages in the Sabon Birni Local Government Area.
According to witnesses interviewed by Amnesty International in Kaduna, Plateau and Katsina states, the attacks are well coordinated. Attackers stormed villages on motorcycles and heavily armed. They shoot sporadically at people, set houses on fire, steal cattle, destroy farm produce and abduct villagers for ransom, the report read in part.
It was also learnt that some victims of the recent attacks in Southern Kaduna told Amnesty that security forces were absent during most of the attacks, arriving only hours after the attackers had left.
Amnesty said no fewer than 380 people had been abducted for ransom during attacks in Kaduna, Niger, Katsina, Nasarawa and Zamfara states this year, mostly women and children.
Amnesty called on Nigerian authorities to independently investigate all the deaths and ensure accountability by bringing the perpetrators to justice.
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