Nigeria gunmen kidnap around a dozen children, sources say

AFP reported Sunday, citing local and security sources, that armed men on motorcycles kidnapped around a dozen children in central Nigeria's Niger state.

The children were seized Saturday near Maigujeri in Rafi district while returning from a farm where they had been helping their Quranic school teacher harvest maize, the cited sources said.

A security report seen by AFP said 18 children had been abducted. Local resident Mohammed Abdullahi said the number was closer to 12 and said one child was shot and was receiving treatment at a hospital in Minna, the state capital.

Police did not respond to AFP requests for comment.

The reported abduction follows a series of mass kidnappings in Niger state by heavily armed criminal gangs known locally as bandits. AFP reported that at least 47 farmers, many of them women, were abducted in September while harvesting groundnuts, and that around 50 children were seized from a farm in August and later released after a ransom was paid.