Sneak Attack Ends in Mass Kidnapping

(NationRise.com) – According to a Reuters March 18 report, gunmen in Nigeria kidnapped nearly 90 people in a sneak attack on a Kaduna province village. A local village leader told the news agency that most of the people kidnapped by the criminals were children and women.

In a press conference, Kaduna police spokesman Mansur Hassan admitted that the kidnappings by the Nigerian armed gang did happen but didn’t detail the number of people who were taken. Hassan also told reporters that security forces were already sent to the Kaduna province to restore order and rescue inhabitants. A village leader named Tanko Sarkin told Reuters in a phone call that while many people in the village escaped during the attacks, five have already returned home so far. He added this was the fifth time that “these bandits” attacked the village and its community over the last few weeks.

According to some reports, village residents said they were taken by surprise as the criminals were dressed in police and military uniforms and parked their motorcycles away from the Kaduna province village. One of the residents, named Haruna Atika, said that he and many other members of the community were chatting outside during nighttime when the “bandits appeared.” He said they immediately started to beat and shoot everyone and took his wife and two daughters with them.

Over the last few years, kidnapping in Nigeria’s northern region has become a common type of crime, as criminals seek ransom payments for the people they kidnap. Back on March 8, a group of gunmen abducted nearly 230 children from a school that was also located in the Kaduna province.

While the identity of the bandits remains unclear, authorities believe that these are part of Ansaru, which is an affiliated group of the Jihadi terrorist organization Boko Haram. During a press conference at the village, the Chief of Nigeria’s Defense Staff, Christopher Musa, said that the government would send troops to the zone to bring justice and bring those who were kidnapped back home.