Armed men abducted at least 52 people, including children, during a weekend attack in Nigeria’s northwestern Zamfara state, local sources told AFP on Monday.
Shehu Abdullahi, a resident of Kasuwar Daji village, said his 12-year-old daughter was among those taken.
“The gunmen initially abducted more than 100 people,” Abdullahi said, adding that some were later released, leaving 52 people still in captivity.
A second local source confirmed the figure, while Nigeria’s armed forces said an “unspecified number” of villagers had been kidnapped.
Nigerian authorities had earlier launched a security operation to pursue armed groups accused of abducting residents from two villages in Zamfara following a series of recent attacks.
A local official said gunmen raided the villages of Kurfa Danya and Kurfan Magaji in the Bukuyum area on Thursday, opening fire on vehicles and homes before overrunning the communities.
Northwestern Nigeria has endured years of violence by heavily armed criminal gangs, commonly known as bandits, who carry out mass kidnappings for ransom and raid rural villages.
