Nigeria: Gunmen raided four villages in Nigeria’s northeastern Zamfara state on Sunday, kidnapping more than 100 people, including women and children, the information commissioner and residents said on Monday.
Kidnapping has become common in northwest Nigeria as roving gangs of armed men abduct people from villages, highways, and farms and demand ransom money from their relatives.
Zamfara’s information commissioner Ibrahim Dosara and a resident said that more than 40 people were abducted from Kanwa village in Jurmi local government area of Zamfara. Another 37, mostly women and children were taken into Kwabre community in the same local government area, the occupant added, declining to be named for the sake of security reasons.
“Right now Kanwa village is deserted, the bandits divided themselves into two groups and attacked the community. They kidnapped children aged between 14 to 16 years and women,” the Kanwa village resident said. In Yankaba and Gidan Goga communities of Maradun Local government area, at least 38 people were kidnapped while working on their farms, residents said.
Information Commissioner Doosara accused the gunmen of using the hostages as human shields against army airstrikes.
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