Nigeria kidnapping: gunmen seize at least 52, residents say

Residents said gunmen kidnapped at least 52 people, including children, during a weekend attack on Kasuwar Daji village and a military base in Zamfara state, northwest Nigeria.

The gunmen rode motorcycles into the village in the Kaura Namoda local government area around midnight Saturday into Sunday, first attacking a military base on the outskirts of the community, residents told AFP. They said the attackers seized rifles from the base and set a military patrol vehicle on fire before raiding homes.

Resident Shehu Abdullahi told AFP the attackers initially abducted more than 100 people, then released some and kept 52. He said his 12-year-old daughter was among those kidnapped. Another resident, Ahmad Usman, gave the same toll and said two of his sons' wives and two teenage girls from his family were taken.

Army spokesman Olaniyi Osoba said troops successfully repelled the attack on the military base. He said the gunmen killed a soldier and a policeman and abducted an unspecified number of residents. Osoba blamed the attack on “terrorists”, a term Nigeria's government uses for various armed groups.

A separate assault was reported in neighbouring Sokoto state. A local resident told AFP at least 11 people were killed in Sabon Birni, near the Nigeria-Niger border. Nigerian media said that attack lasted from 11:00 pm Saturday until 3:00 am Sunday.

Kidnappings have become a major source of income for armed groups in Nigeria, including jihadists in the northeast and criminal gangs known locally as bandits in the northwest. SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based consultancy, has tallied about $1.66 million in ransom payments from kidnappings between July 2024 and June 2025.