Nigeria bus kidnappings leave passengers missing in Imo

Armed kidnappers held up two buses near Umunoha in southeastern Nigeria's Imo state on Thursday, leaving an unknown number of passengers missing as security agencies searched for them, police said.

Imo state police said unidentified armed men stopped the buses at around 6:30 a.m. Ten people were rescued and both buses were recovered, police said, adding that the exact number of abducted people was still being verified.

Members of Nigeria's National Youth Service Corps, a post-university one-year national service programme, were among the passengers.

Police said tactical teams and operational assets had been deployed with other security agencies to rescue the victims.

Abductions for ransom by criminals, armed groups and jihadists are a major security problem in Nigeria, though the violence is usually concentrated in the north. Nigerian security forces are also dealing with a jihadist insurgency, bandit gangs, farmer-herder violence and separatist tensions in different parts of the country.