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Gunmen kidnapped at least 52 people, including children, in a weekend attack on a village and military base in northwest Nigeria’s Zamfara state, local sources told the AFP news agency on Monday.
Kidnappings have become a major source of income for armed groups in Nigeria, including jihadists in the northeast and criminal gangs known locally as “bandits.”
Zamfara is one of the hardest hit states in the northwest.
The gunmen on motorcycles swept into Kasuwar Daji village in the Kaura Namoda local government area around midnight on Saturday into Sunday, first attacking a military base on the outskirts of the community, residents told AFP.
The attackers seized rifles from the base and set a military patrol vehicle ablaze before raiding the village, where they abducted dozens of people, residents said.
“Initially, they abducted more than 100 people,” before letting some go, ultimately retaining 52, said Shehu Abdullahi, a resident of Kasuwar Daji whose 12-year-old daughter was among those kidnapped.
“The gunmen went from house to house, abducting many people,” another resident, Ahmad Usman, told AFP, giving the same toll.
“They abducted two of my sons’ wives and they also took away two teenage girls from my family.”
No soldiers were suspected to have been kidnapped.
Alhaji Ibrahim Musa told AFP the attackers “overpowered (a) military base stationed here in our community.”
“This is not the first time these criminals are attacking our community,” he added, noting a recent attack on a police station.
Army spokesman Olaniyi Osoba said troops “successfully” repelled the attack on the military base, in which the gunmen killed a soldier and a policeman and “abducted an unspecified number of residents.”
Osoba’s statement blamed the attack on “terrorists,” a term the Nigerian government uses for a variety of armed groups.
A Zamfara police spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Bandit gangs operate across swathes of rural northwest and central Nigeria where state presence is weak.
They are known to levy “taxes” on farmers, rustle livestock, raid villages and are implicated in illegal mining operations.
Additional sources • AFP