Brussels 10.09.2021 Nigerian authorities rescue over 200 abduction victims in a week. The security agents have rescued nearly 200 kidnapped people during raids on camps of criminal gangs in dense tropical forest in the country’s northwest, police said.

Heavily armed criminal gangs known locally as bandits have plagued northwest and central Nigeria for years, raiding and looting villages and abducting people for ransom.

Nigeria forces rescue nearly 200 abducted victims in northwest
The 187 victims were freed in Zamfara state, where they had been seized in separate attacks, police say.

The rescue was part of a weeks-long broader military operation in Zamfara and other northwestern states
Nigerian security agents have rescued nearly 200 kidnapped people during raids on camps of criminal gangs in dense forests in the country’s northwest, police said.

Heavily armed criminal gangs known locally as bandits have plagued northwest and central Nigeria for years, raiding and looting villages and abducting for ransom.

The rescued victims, including 187 men, women and children, were freed in Zamfara state, where they had been abducted in separate random attacks, police said late on Thursday, October 8.

Images and video were sent by police to the media showing some exhausted people with torn clothes and struggling to sit as they waited to be transported back to their homes.

“The abducted victims who spent many weeks in captivity were unconditionally rescued following extensive search and rescue operations that lasted for hours,” Zamfara state police spokesman said in a statement.

The rescue was part of a weeks-long broader military operation in Zamfara and other northwestern states that has included intentional telecoms blackouts to disrupt gang’s communications.

The criminal groups, who maintain camps hidden in forests straddling Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto and Kaduna states, have been increasingly attacking schools where they kidnap pupils for ransom.

Hundreds of schoolchildren have been abducted in mass kidnappings since December. Most have been freed or released after ransoms were paid but dozens are still being held.

Schools have become targets for mass kidnappings for ransom in northern Nigeria by various armed groups. Such kidnappings in Nigeria were first carried out by jihadist group Boko Haram, and later its offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province, but nowadays the tactic has been adopted by other criminal gangs.

The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said that 1 million Nigerian children could miss school this year as the new term begins amid a rise in mass school kidnappings and insecurity.