At least 52 people, including children, were abducted by armed men during a weekend attack on a village in Nigeria's northwestern Zamfara State, local residents told AFP on Monday, in the latest sign of persistent insecurity in the region.
According to witnesses, dozens of gunmen riding motorcycles stormed Kasuwar Daji village in the Kaura Namoda Local Government Area during the night between Saturday and Sunday.
The attackers first assaulted a military outpost on the outskirts of the village, seizing rifles and setting a military patrol vehicle on fire before moving into the community, where they went house to house abducting residents.
"They initially kidnapped more than 100 people before releasing some and eventually keeping 52," resident Shehu Abullahi told AFP, adding that his 12-year-old daughter was among those still being held.
Another resident, Ahmad Usman, confirmed the toll, saying the gunmen abducted numerous villagers, including the wives of two of his sons and two teenage girls from his family.
The Nigerian military said its troops had successfully repelled the attack on the military base. However, military spokesman Olaniyi Osoba confirmed that one soldier and one police officer were killed during the assault and that the attackers managed to abduct an unspecified number of villagers.
In a statement, the army described the assailants as "terrorists," a term Nigerian authorities commonly use to refer to various armed groups operating across the country.
Violence Continues Across Northwest Nigeria
The attack on Kasuwar Daji came shortly after another deadly assault in neighboring Sokoto State, where at least 11 people were reportedly killed by armed men in the town of Sabon Birni, near the Niger border, according to a local resident and Nigerian media reports.
Northwestern and central Nigeria have long been plagued by heavily armed criminal gangs locally known as "bandits." Exploiting weak state presence in rural areas, these groups engage in kidnappings for ransom, cattle rustling, village raids, illegal mining, and extortion of farming communities.
Residents say Kasuwar Daji has been repeatedly targeted in recent months, including a previous attack on a local police station.
The latest kidnapping follows several major attacks in Zamfara State. In late July, gunmen killed around 20 people during raids on villages, according to local officials and residents. Earlier in June, more than 40 people were abducted during a single weekend of attacks in the same state.
Security analysts have also warned that criminal gangs are increasingly collaborating with jihadist groups based in northeastern Nigeria, where an insurgency has been ongoing for 17 years.
Despite years of military operations and repeated government efforts to negotiate with armed groups through amnesty and compensation programs, violence has continued across the region.
According to a report by Lagos-based consultancy SBM Intelligence, kidnappers collected an estimated $1.66 million in ransom payments between July 2024 and June 2025, highlighting the growing profitability of mass abductions in Nigeria.
