MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) -At least 13 people died and more than 20 were missing in northwestern Nigeria’s Zamfara State after the boat they crowded aboard to escape an attack by armed men sank in a river, local residents and officials said on Saturday.

Zamfara is an epicentre of attacks by armed men, known locally as bandits, amid a surge across Africa’s most populous country in recent months of factional bloodshed that often involves Islamist militias or criminal gangs.

The assailants stormed two communities in Birnin Magaji ward on Friday afternoon, sending locals fleeing toward a nearby riverbank that had a single boat, residents told Reuters.

“My eldest son and two other nieces were among the 13 people who died when the boat was heavily overloaded with people,” Shehu Mohammed, a

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