JOHANNESBURG – Gunmen have kidnapped 27 people in Nigeria’s Kaduna and Osun states, with 13 of those abducted from two villages along the Kaduna-Abuja highway on Sunday and Monday.
A source from the affected communities said that seven people were kidnapped at Begiwa Kaso on Saturday while another six people were kidnapped in the early hours of Monday at Dutse, all in the Chikun local government area of Kaduna state, along the Kaduna-Abuja highway, the Leadership reported on Tuesday.
The armed gunmen, suspected of being criminals, stormed the villages before opening fire indiscriminately and then abducting the kidnap victims to an unknown destination without asking for a ransom as villagers continue to live in fear that the bandits could return.
In the other incident suspected Fulani herdsmen have also reportedly kidnapped 18 passengers, including the driver, from a bus as it drove along Otan/Imesi-Ile road in Osun.
Clashes, between the mostly Muslim nomadic Fulani herdsmen and pastoralist Christian farmers over land and water resources, have led to hundreds of deaths and many more displacements over the years.
Nigeria suffers from high levels of crime, including kidnappings, as well as an ongoing fight against Boko Haram insurgents.