Gunmen kill 9 in attacks on Nigerian polio clinics: police

Attacks come after radio programs repeat conspiracy theories that such campaigns are Western plot to harm Muslims.

KANO: Gunmen attacked two polio clinics in the northern Nigerian city of Kano on Friday, killing nine people before fleeing, police and residents said.

"Nine people were killed in two separate attacks by gunmen on (motorised) tricycles when they attacked two dispensaries where polio immunisation workers were preparing to go out for polio campaigns," police spokesman Magaji Majia told AFP.

The attacks come after a local cleric denounced polio vaccination campaigns this week and some local radio programmes repeated previous conspiracy theories about such campaigns being a Western plot to harm Muslims.

Such conspiracy theories have long spread in parts of northern Nigeria, stoked by local politicians. Nigeria is one of only three countries still considered to have endemic polio, alongside Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Police declined to say who they believed was behind the killings. Group Boko Haram has carried out attacks in Kano, though gangs linked to local politics also operate.

Last year, two Nigerian police guarding polio vaccination workers were killed by gunmen, though it was unclear if the attack was linked to the campaign.