In two weekend attacks in Kaduna state, gunmen in Nigeria abducted almost 100 people, including women and children, locals and police reported on Monday.
In Nigeria, particularly in the north, kidnappings by criminal groups seeking ransom have become nearly regular occurrences, and the government don’t appear to be able to stop them.
The incident in Kajuru Station village on Sunday night was confirmed by Kaduna police spokesperson Mansur Hassan, but he was unable to provide an estimate of the number of people missing. He claimed that in order to save the locals, security personnel had been sent in.
According to village chief Tanko Wada Sarkin, 87 persons were abducted.
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“Five people who fled through the bush have so far been reported as returning home.” This is the fifth time these bandits have attacked this village, he said over the phone to Reuters.
Because they had parked their motorcycles outside of the settlement, the residents claimed that armed men wearing army uniforms entered the area unnoticed.
Another resident, Aruwa Ya’u, said that the gunmen had taken him hostage but had later released him because of his weak health. He said he was being treated at a government clinic nearby.
It has been reported that gunmen force-march their prisoners far into the bush, where they imprison them for several months in exchange for ransom payments.
The kidnappings occur in the wake of gunmen seizing 61 individuals in Buda town on March 12 and 286 pupils and staff from a school in Kuriga, Kaduna state, early in March.
Residents of Dogon Noma, another community in the Kajuru local government region, reported that on Saturday night, gunmen attacked and took 16 people hostage from their homes.
Daniel Shamang, a local, stated that neither the kidnappers nor the missing residents had left them with any word.
The jihadist group Boko Haram was the first to kidnap kids from a school in Nigeria. A decade ago, the group took around 200 pupils from a girls’ school in Chibok, Borno state.
However, criminal gangs without any particular ideology have now started using the strategy to demand ransom payments.
Families and towns are being torn apart by the kidnappings, which force people to pool their funds in order to pay the ransoms. This frequently means selling valuables like grain, animals, and property in order to free loved ones who have been taken captive.
Reporting from Hamza Ibrahim in Kano, Ahmed Kingimi in Maiduguri, and Garba Muhammad in Kaduna; writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe; editing by Ros Russell
