Armed men kidnapped dozens of people in Kaduna state (northwest Nigeria) on Tuesday March 12, a few days after the kidnapping of more than 250 students from a school in the same region, two local representatives reported. and a source at the United Nations.

According to local councilor Abubakar Buda interviewed by the Nigerian television channel Channels TV, armed men stormed a village in Kajuru district on Tuesday morning and went from house to house kidnapping residents, opening fire sporadically .

A military intervention was able to prevent more individuals from being kidnapped, according to the channel.

Thirty-two women and 29 men were kidnapped, local MP Usman Danlami Stingo told Arise News.

A UN source, not authorized to speak to the press, confirmed to AFP that armed men had attacked the village early Tuesday.

“The initial report showed 40 people kidnapped but the figure rose to around 60,” said this source.

Kaduna state authorities did not immediately respond to AFP's requests.

250 students still wanted

These kidnappings occurred as security forces search for more than 250 students kidnapped on March 7 from their school, located in Kuriga, in the same state, some 150 kilometers from this village.

According to families of the missing, little information has been communicated since this mass kidnapping, one of the largest in this country in three years.

Criminal gangs regularly carry out mass kidnappings in northwestern Nigeria.

They target schools, villages and highways, places where they can quickly kidnap large numbers of people, with the aim of obtaining the payment of a ransom.

The wave of mass kidnappings affecting Nigeria poses a challenge for the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who has promised to tackle the problem of insecurity, but also to combat the crisis of the cost of living and to attract more investment in Africa's most populous country.

With AFP

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