Nigerian police confirm gunmen abducted villagers, after initial denials

The head of a Christian church alliance says 172 people were kidnapped by armed men, and that nine later escaped.

Police in Nigeria’s Kaduna State said that armed bandits abducted dozens of villagers over the weekend, after initially dismissing the incident.

In a statement late on Tuesday, Nigeria’s national police spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin, said an “abduction” had indeed occurred on Sunday, and that the police had launched security operations “with a clear focus on locating and safely rescuing the victims and restoring calm to the area”.

Hundeyin said the earlier denials by officers and other officials were “intended to prevent unnecessary panic while facts were being confirmed”. The police statement did not say how many people were abducted.

In an interview with The Associated Press news agency, Kaduna State lawmaker Usman Danlami Stingo put the number of missing people at 168.

The head of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the northern part of the country, Reverend John Hayab, told the Reuters news agency by phone on Monday that at least 172 worshippers were kidnapped, and that nine later escaped, leaving 163 still missing.

Sunday’s raid is the latest in a wave of mass kidnappings targeting both Christians and Muslims in Nigeria.

Gangs, known in Nigeria as “bandits”, frequently carry out mass kidnappings for ransom, and loot villages, mainly in the northern and central parts of Africa’s most populous country.

Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris, reporting from Kurmin Wali village in Kaduna State, said dozens of gunmen stormed the village on Sunday as people gathered to pray in three churches and abducted a quarter of the village’s residents.

“Two days after the attack, the community received a demand,” Idris said.

“The bandits want the return of 10 missing motorcycles they hid in the bush. For now, that is the condition for the release of the captives. But Kurmin Wali residents say they don’t know where the bikes are, and they have been robbed to a point where many can hardly afford to feed themselves,” he said.

In November, armed gangs seized more than 300 students and teachers from a Catholic school in the country’s Niger State, with 50 escaping and the rest being released in two batches weeks later.

Roughly evenly split between a mostly Christian south and Muslim-majority north, Nigeria is home to myriad conflicts, which experts say kill both Christians and Muslims, often without distinction.

But United States President Donald Trump has latched onto the security situation in Nigeria, focusing on the killing of Christians and putting Abuja under diplomatic pressure.

In late December, the US launched strikes on what it and the Nigerian government said were armed groups in northwestern Sokoto State.

Nigeria said it approved the strikes.