LAGOS, Nigeria—Gunmen attacked a rural village in northern Nigeria, killing 16 worshippers at a mosque and kidnapping others, said a local official. The assault on Ba’are village in the Mashegu area of Niger state lasted for hours on Thursday, local government chairman Alhassan Isah Mazakuka said. Dozens of the assailants arrived on motorcycles and rampaged through the village, killing people praying at the mosque and looting, he said. “Those people (the gunmen) are dangerous,” he told The Associated Press in a phone interview on Friday. “They killed 16 and kidnapped many of our people. We don’t even know the number they kidnapped because they are uncountable.” Nigerian police confirmed the incident but said only nine residents were killed. The police have in the past been accused of downplaying casualty figures in such attacks. The attack is the latest in the escalating violence in northwestern and northcentral Nigeria where armed groups …