KANO: Gunmen attacked a remote town in northern Nigeria, killing eight people and kidnapped about 150 more in the government’s latest mass violence, authorities told AFP on Monday.
In Nigeria’s west and northern states, where heavily armed bandits are frequently operating in remote villages, large-scale kidnappings for a payment are popular.
On Friday nights, motorbike intruders stormed Kuchi community in Niger state, killing eight people and “abducting about 150 locals,” local government official Aminu Najume said.
” They came on around 100 riders each carrying three men”, he said. No one arrived during the three days they spent operating in the community.
The same number was given for the number of people who were abducted, according to a UN origin, while SEMA, a state-run rescue agency in Nigeria, claimed more than 100 people were abducted.
In northeast Nigeria, Boko Haram and its rival jihadist group Islamic State West Africa Province ( ISWAP ) regularly carry out abductions.
Some ideology organizations have established bases in the area, including in Niger position.
Najume, who blamed thieves for Friday’s attack, accused African security causes of failing to prevent ordinary raids.
” These murders typically enter from the neighboring Kaduna position and go up. They arrive in plenty, and amazingly, security personnel are unaware of their presence while they are traveling. And when people warn them they take no action”, he said.
The Nigerian army claims to often engage in activities against militants in the area and rescues kidnapping sufferers.
At the mercy of militants
Bandits are motivated by financial gain and have no intellectual inclinations, but there has been concern over their growing empire with jihadists who are waging a 15-year rebellion in the northeast.
In west Nigeria, some communities have established self-defense vigilant forces to combat bandits in remote areas without a express presence.
Najume claimed that the attackers had killed four police and four people.
Amnesty International, a rights organization, criticized the assault, posting that the gunmen’s invasion of the village shows how completely the Nigerian government has failed to protect lives.
The Nigerian government “has abandoned the rural areas of Niger position at the mercy of gunmen who murder and kidnap people every day,” it continued.
The organization demanded that the government stop large-scale robberies and prosecute the perpetrators.
The police and the African president were contacted by AFP for comment, but they did not respond right away.
Due to under-reporting, kidnapping data is extremely unsatisfactory, but in March, the Nigerian risk firm SBM Intelligence reported that 4, 777 people had been abducted since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took company in May of last year.
