Police and inhabitants affirmed on Wednesday that bandits gunned at least 18 people in the north-west Nigerian state of Katsina, as unrest spreads across the region and into the president's home state.

Hundreds of people had passed away in Nigeria's north-west, since the inception of the year, in assaults which the government relates to bandits; a loose term for gangs of outlaws carrying out robberies and abduction.

Despite military and police operations to suppress the conflict, the death toll continues to rise, along with incidents of abduction and robbery.

Security experts say Nigeria can ill-afford more instability, with the country already struggling to contain Islamist insurgencies in the northeast, brutal pastoral conflict in the central states and militant groups in the Niger Delta to the southeast.

Police reported that, in the latest incident, gangsters assaulted farmers at the village of Yar Gamji, near Nigeria's border with Niger, on Tuesday morning ambuscading 18 of them.

The attackers escaped into a nearby forest, police added in a statement.

Residents said that while 18 bodies had been discovered, many more people were feared dead.

Hassan Ibrahim, one of the death victims’ brother stated that, "Right now we are at the Emir's palace for the mass burial of our relatives, but more than 18 people were killed in this attack"

"There is no peace in Katsina," he said. "Almost every day they carry out attacks on villagers, killing innocent people."