An armed group in Nigeria kidnapped almost 90 more people

In Nigeria, on Monday, an armed group kidnapped at least 87 people in Kaduna province. Among the captured are women and children. Witnesses reported that the five captives later managed to escape and return home. The fate of the others remains unknown.

The kidnappers have not yet put forward any demands for the release of the abducted.

On March 9, in the village of Kuriga in the same province of Kaduna, armed men broke into a local school and kidnapped more than 280 children. The director of the school said that one person was shot while trying to save schoolchildren.

Later it became known that the kidnappers demanded a ransom of one million naira (this is the local currency), which amounts to 620,432 dollars, for the release of the schoolchildren. If the ransom is not paid within two weeks, they threaten to kill all the hostages. Nigerian security forces are trying to track down the kidnappers, but there are no reports of success yet.

• Abductions of children and women in Nigeria occur regularly. The abduction in the village of Kuriga became one of the most massive since 2014, when the radical group Boko Haram kidnapped more than 270 schoolgirls from a dormitory in Chibok. 98 of them still remain in captivity, they are forced to marry their captors, some have returned home with their children.
• No one has yet taken responsibility for the current abduction of children. The Associated Press and Reuters note that the tactics of the protected ransom council are now being used by criminal groups without an ideological focus. These could be shepherds who conflict with local farmers.