President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the latest string of attacks in Nigeria's Zamfara state by armed bandits, as an estimated 200 residents were reportedly killed.

The President who conveyed his outrage in a statement described the attacks as an act of desperation by mass murderers and vowed that his administration would smoke out the assailants. 

Reports say that the terrorists were fleeing Zamfara State in large numbers following heavy military onslaught in several villages in Anka and Bukkuyum Local Government Areas.

The attacks are believed to be in response to last week’s military airstrikes that forced some of the criminal gangs from their forest hideouts.

President Buhari, while extending his sympathy to the survivors and families of those killed said the army and air force were working together to get rid of the criminals as they acquire more equipment to track down the assailants.