Gunmen kidnap dozens in Nigeria
(MENAFN) At least 45 women and children were abducted in coordinated overnight attacks on five villages in Nigeria’s northwestern Zamfara State, local leaders confirmed Tuesday. The assaults began late Monday in Sabongarin Damri village and nearby communities, which lie within half a kilometer of each other.
Shehu Musa, the traditional leader of Damri, told Reuters the gunmen seized dozens of people during the raid that lasted into the early morning hours. Security forces engaged the attackers, killing three militants, but failed to stop them from escaping with hostages and stolen livestock. Civilian casualties were also reported, though the death toll remains unclear.
This attack follows another large-scale kidnapping in the region just days earlier, when gunmen on motorbikes killed 11 people and abducted at least 70 others, including women and children, in Sabongarin Damri on Saturday.
Earlier in the year, bandits killed 38 abductees in Zamfara despite ransom payments, highlighting the ongoing threat from criminal gangs and terrorist groups in Nigeria. Zamfara Governor Dauda Lawal pledged that the government would continue efforts to capture or neutralize those responsible.
Kidnappings by armed groups have long troubled Nigeria, drawing international attention after Boko Haram’s 2014 abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls in Borno State. More recently, over 130 children and staff were kidnapped from a Kaduna school in March 2024 but were rescued by the military within days.
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