Near a hundred people were kidnapped last weekend in northwest Nigeria during an attack by as yet unidentified gunmen -commonly known in the country as “bandits”-, reported today to the news agency EFE a civil society leader.
“Many of the kidnapped people are Women and childrenincluding some you drink”, he said this Tuesday to EFE the secretary of the Coalition of Civil Society Groups of the Zamfara, Attahiru Muhammad.
The attack occurred in several towns in the state of Zamfara, such as Kanwa or Maradunas well as other smaller villages.
According to Muhammed, the attackers arrived in large numbers in those towns, where they entered house to house to kidnap their victims.
“Many people have abandoned that area. Farmers have also abandoned their crops,” said the civil society representative.
“Some have fled to Woof (the capital of the state of Zamfara), while others have preferred to escape to other states due to the lack of security. The situation is really bad right now,” lamented Muhammed.
The central and northwestern states of Nigeria are under constant attack by “bandits”, a term used locally for the criminal gangs that commit mass assaults, robberies and kidnappings to achieve lucrative ransoms.
Earlier this month, a group of armed bandits kidnapped at least 70 people in the towns of Zurmi, Bukkuyum, Bungudu and Marualso located in the state of Zamfara.
The violence continues despite repeated promises by the Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buharito put an end to the problem and the deployment of additional security forces in the area.
Added to this insecurity in northwestern Nigeria is that registered since 2009 in the northeast by the jihadist group boko haram and, since 2016, by its split, the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP).
(With information from EFE)
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Source-www.infobae.com