Daesh’s Nigerian affiliate has been blamed for the recent attack in northeastern Nigeria, which saw over 100 people, mostly women and children, being kidnapped from a number of displacement camps.
More than 100 people are missing after jihadists in northeast Nigeria carried out a mass kidnapping that targeted women and children from displacement camps, officials told AFP on Thursday.
Anti-jihadist militia leaders have blamed Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) for last week’s attack in Borno state, the heart of a jihadist insurgency that has left more than 40,000 people dead and two million displaced since 2009.
Several details about the attack in rural Ngala are still unclear, and officials have given conflicting accounts. The number of people reported missing does not necessarily reflect the number held in captivity.
The displacement camps house almost 104,000 people, mostly women and children.
Anti-jihadist militia leader Shehu Mada had told AFP that women from displacement camps were “rounded up by ISWAP insurgents” on Friday.
“Some of the women were able to escape and return,” said Mada, who helped conduct a headcount that found “47 women from the wood-collecting mission could not be accounted for.”
Borno State police spokesman Nahum Daso Kenneth has said the attack took place at around 4 PM (5 PM Beirut time) on Friday.
Kidnapping is a major problem across Nigeria, which is also grappling with criminal militias in the northwest and a flareup of intercommunal violence in central states.
Last month, kidnappers seized at least 35 women returning from a wedding in northwestern Katsina state.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came to power last year, promising to address insecurity in Nigeria. However, critics say the violence is out of control.
With AFP
