MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Gunmen kidnapped at the very least 20 college students in northwestern Nigeria throughout an assault early Friday that focused their college, native media and authorities reported Friday, the newest in a cycle of violence within the nation’s troubled northern area.
The scholars have been taken hostage when the gunmen broke into their lodging close to the Federal College Gusau in Zamfara state’s Bungudu district, Zamfara police spokesman Yazid Abubakar stated.
Abubakar could not verify the precise variety of kidnapped college students, although native media reported the determine as 24, quoting different college students who additionally stated that the kidnap victims have been largely feminine college students.
Abductions of scholars from colleges in northern Nigeria are widespread and have turn out to be a supply of concern since 2014 when Islamic extremists kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls in Borno state. The frequency of the assaults although has lowered during the last yr and Friday’s incident presents a brand new problem to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu who solely took workplace in Might.
The assailants within the newest incident arrived in giant numbers after earlier confronting the safety personnel within the space, residents stated, highlighting as soon as once more the insufficient safety presence in distant communities throughout Nigeria.
“The safety forces, beforehand alerted to the state of affairs, engaged the terrorists who subsequently retreated into the bush. (However) the terrorists later returned to the group to hold out the abductions,” stated Abdullahi Ilela, a resident of the group.
No group has claimed accountability for the newest assault although the blame shortly fell on the bandit teams which were concentrating on distant communities throughout Nigeria’s northwest and central areas. Authorities say the teams are largely made up of younger pastoralists from Nigeria’s Fulani tribe caught up in a decades-long battle between host communities and herdsmen over restricted entry to water and land.
Abubakar, the police spokesman, stated a manhunt has been launched to arrest the attackers.
“A mixed search and rescue workforce made up of the police, the military and the air drive have launched into the search and rescue,” he stated.
