Tag Archives: kidnappings for ransom

A boat carrying mostly women and children capsized in north-central Nigeria on Wednesday, leaving at least seven people dead and dozens missing, Reuters agency reports. Two residents in Guni village in Niger state said the passengers on the boat were trying to escape from gunmen who had attacked their village …

Nigerian security forces said they managed to eliminate three suspected kidnappers in Edo state in the south of the country, while many others fled. Army spokesman Onyema Nwachukwu said the men were part of a notorious gang that was intercepted as it set up an ambush on a major highway. …

Over the weekend, attacks by gunmen on motorbikes in two communities in Nigeria’s Niger State left dozens dead and kidnapped, local media reported. The raids come two weeks after authorities in Nigeria launched a major military operation to crack down on bandits in the area. Residents of Galadima Kogo and …

Four people, including two men and two teenagers, accused of cannibalism and selling human organs have been arrested in northwestern Zamfara state in Nigeria, local media report. According to the State’s police chief, Ayuba Elkanah, other members of the gang were being tracked down. “They were arrested after detectives found …

Twenty-four people, including students and travelers, who had been kidnapped from different parts of Zamfara state were rescued, police said. Commissioner Ayuba Elkanah said that some of the victims spent more than 60 days in captivity before they were freed. He added that they were rescued unconditionally. Zamfara is regarded …

Gunmen on motorcycles shot dead at least 15 civilians early on Monday and injured scores of others in Sokoto state, northwest Nigeria, local media reported. The state governor, Aminu Tambuwal, who confirmed the attacks in a statement, said 13 of the victims were killed in the town of Illela on …

Security forces in Nigeria have rescued six people abducted by armed men from a university in Abuja this week, in what was a rare kidnapping at a higher education institution in the country’s capital, police said on Friday. Gunmen abducted four members of staff and two of their children from …

Nigerian police say it has arrested 20 suspected armed kidnappers in the north-west of the country where abductions for ransom are very frequent. According to the authorities, the abductors arrested belonged to two separate gangs that had mainly operated on major motorways in the region. In a statement Police Spokesperson …

International medical charity, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), has condemned the killing of Hassan Muhammad, one of its nurses in Zamfara state, in the north-west of Nigeria. The nurse was returning to his work station on Saturday when gunmen opened fire on the public vehicle he was travelling in. Two other …

Five girls among dozens of students abducted from a secondary school in the northern Nigerian state of Zamfara have escaped from captivity. Gunmen attacked their school in Kaya-Maradun town on Wednesday and seized more than 70 students, most of them girls and a senior member of staff. Parents of the …