Nigerian president condemns killing of 37 villagers

­KANO, Nigeria: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday "strongly" condemned recent attacks by cattle raiders on three villages in the country´s northwest that officials said killed 37 people.

He offered commiserations to the survivors and vowed a firm response to "these brutal and remorseless enemies of humanity".

"These frequent and large scale killings of poor villagers by gangs of mass murderers must be met with the fiercest force the government can mobilise," presidential assistant Garba Shehu quoted Buhari as saying.

On Wednesday, armed men on motorcycles raided three villages in the district of Goronyo in the Nigerian state of Sokoto, district chief Zakari Chinaka said.