Nigeria's mass abductions: What lies behind the resurgence? - BBC News

Twice in a week, gangs of motorcycle-riding armed men kidnapped hundreds of people in the north.

2 days agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, AFPImage caption, Family members of those who had been abducted from a school in Kaduna gathered to meet the state governor on ThursdayBy Yusuf AkinpeluBBC News, LagosNigeria is once more being rocked by mass abductions.

Twice in one week, gangs of motorcycle-riding armed men, operating from forests in two different places in the north of the country, kidnapped hundreds of people.

First on Wednesday we got news from a remote town in Borno state in the north-east that suspected militant Islamists had seized women and children from a displaced persons camp who were searching for firewood. It took several days for the news to emerge because the local mobile phone masts had been destroyed.

Then the following day, more than 280 children, aged between eight and 15, and some teachers, were taken away by gunmen from a school hundreds of miles away in the north-western state of Kaduna into a nearby forest.

There are reports locally that this attack was carried out by militants from the al-Qaeda-linked Ansaru group.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-68512071

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