more than 100 people kidnapped in the northwest of the country

Criminal gangs often carry out mass kidnappings in northwest Nigeria, targeting schools, villages and highways, where they can quickly kidnap large numbers of people in exchange for ransom.

More than 100 people were kidnapped in northwestern Nigeria in two separate attacks in Kaduna state, local authorities said Monday (March 18). These new kidnappings follow that of several dozen people last week in the same district of Kajuru, as well as that, at the beginning of March, of more than 250 students from a school in Kuriga, 150 kilometers from Kajuru.

On Saturday, 16 people were kidnapped in Dogon Noma, according to a resident, Harisu Dari, and a former local official. Then, during the night from Sunday to Monday, armed men kidnapped 87 people in the locality of Kajuru Station, about ten kilometers away, according to the president of the local government, Ibrahim Gajere. “They went to take people from their homes at gunpoint”he told AFP.

Harisu Dari said groups of attackers, known locally as bandits, stormed the village around 10 p.m. and went door to door kidnapping residents.

Mass kidnappings

Kaduna police and the state security commissioner did not respond to repeated AFP requests for confirmation.

Criminal gangs often carry out mass kidnappings in northwest Nigeria, targeting schools, villages and highways, where they can quickly kidnap large numbers of people in exchange for ransom.

This wave of large-scale kidnappings is testing the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who has promised to tackle insecurity. Nigerian risk management consultancy SBM Intelligence said it had recorded 4,777 abductees since it took office in May 2023.