Bauchi, Nigeria
Reuters
Gunmen abducted at least 80 people, mostly women and children, in Nigeria’s Zamfara state, a hotspot for kidnappings for ransom by armed gangs targeting remote villages, residents said on Saturday.
Gangs of armed men have attacked hundreds of local communities across north-western Nigeria in recent years, while Islamist militants continue to stage attacks in the north-east.
ARMED GANGS KILL 74 IN NIGERIA’S BENUE STATE
At least 74 people were killed in Nigeria’s Benue state in two separate attacks by gunmen this week, local officials and police said on Saturday, the latest clashes in an area where violence between pastoralists and farmers is common.
Violence has increased in recent years as population growth leads to an expansion of the area dedicated to farming, leaving less land available for open grazing by nomads’ cattle herds.
Benue state police spokesperson Catherine Anene said 28 bodies were recovered at a camp for internally displaced people in Mgban local government area between Friday evening and Saturday morning.
It was not immediately clear what triggered the attack but witnesses said gunmen arrived and started shooting, killing several people.
This followed a separate incident in the same state on Wednesday in the remote Umogidi village of Otukpo local government area, when suspected herdsmen killed villagers at a funeral, Bako Eje, the chairman for Otukpo, told Reuters.
Paul Hemba, a security adviser to the Benue state governor, said 46 bodies were recovered after Wednesday’s attack.
President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement on Saturday condemned “the recent bout of killings in Benue State in which tens of people were killed in Umogidi community” and directed security forces to increase surveillance in affected areas.
Many such attacks in remote parts of Nigeria go unreported as thinly stretched security forces often respond late to distress calls by communities.
Benue is one of Nigeria’s Middle Belt states, where the majority Muslim North meets the predominantly Christian South.
Competition over land use is particularly intractable in the Middle Belt, where fault lines between farmers and herders often overlap with ethnic and religious divisions.
In further violence, gunmen abducted at least 80 people in Zamfara state, a hot spot for kidnappings for ransom by armed gangs targeting remote villages, residents said on Saturday.
– ADEWALE KOLAWOLE, Maiduguri, Nigeria and FELIX ONUAH in Abuja/Reuters
The latest kidnapping took place on Friday in Wanzamai village in Tsafe local government area in Zamfara, three residents said. Zamfara is one of the states most affected by kidnappings.
Musa Usman, whose 14-year-old son Ibrahim was among those abducted, said children and women from the village were clearing land for farming and collecting firewood when they were taken by gunmen and marched into a nearby forest.
“The children from different households went to collect firewood and few of them were going to farms in search of manual jobs when they were abducted,” Usman told Reuters by phone.
Zamfara police spokesperson Mohammed Shehu confirmed the incident in a statement but did not say how many people were abducted. The police were working with the military and community security guards to rescue the victims, he said.
Haruna Noma, another parent, said some of those taken were from two nearby villages of Kucheri and Danwuri who had gone to Wanzamai to clear land to farm.
The gunmen had not yet made ransom demands, the residents said.
Amina Tsafe said her daughter was also abducted and that most of the children taken were aged between 12 and 17 years.
Kidnappers in Nigeria often keep their victims for months if a ransom is not paid and also demand villagers pay protection fees to be allowed to farm and harvest their crops.
Nigeria’s military has been bombing bush camps used by armed gangs, but the attacks have continued.
At least 74 people were killed in Nigeria’s Benue state in two separate attacks by gunmen this week, local officials and police said on Saturday, the latest clashes in an area where violence between pastoralists and farmers is common.
Violence has increased in recent years as population growth leads to an expansion of the area dedicated to farming, leaving less land available for open grazing by nomads’ cattle herds.
Benue state police spokesperson Catherine Anene said 28 bodies were recovered at a camp for internally displaced people in Mgban local government area between Friday evening and Saturday morning.
It was not immediately clear what triggered the attack but witnesses said gunmen arrived and started shooting, killing several people.
This followed a separate incident in the same state on Wednesday in the remote Umogidi village of Otukpo local government area, when suspected herdsmen killed villagers at a funeral, Bako Eje, the chairman for Otukpo, told Reuters.
Paul Hemba, a security adviser to the Benue state governor, said 46 bodies were recovered after Wednesday’s attack.
President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement on Saturday condemned “the recent bout of killings in Benue State in which tens of people were killed in Umogidi community” and directed security forces to increase surveillance in affected areas.
Many such attacks in remote parts of Nigeria go unreported as thinly stretched security forces often respond late to distress calls by communities.
Benue is one of Nigeria’s Middle Belt states, where the majority Muslim north meets the predominantly Christian south.
Competition over land use is particularly intractable in the Middle Belt, where fault lines between farmers and herders often overlap with ethnic and religious divisions.
In further violence, gunmen abducted at least 80 people in Zamfara state, a hot spot for kidnappings for ransom by armed gangs targeting remote villages, residents said on Saturday.
– Additional reporting by AHMED KINGIMI in Maiduguri
