Two days after gunmen marched dozens of worshippers out of their churches in Kaduna State, the village received a ransom demand. It was not for money. The bandits wanted ten motorcycles back.
Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris, reporting from Kurmin Wali, said the gunmen hid the bikes in the bush and want them returned before they free their captives. Residents say they do not know where the motorcycles are. “They have been robbed to a point where many can hardly afford to feed themselves,” Idris said.
What happened on Sunday
Dozens of gunmen stormed the largely Christian forest village on Sunday while people were at prayer, Idris reported. By his account they took a quarter of the village’s residents.
Reverend Joseph Hayab, who leads the Christian Association of Nigeria in the north, put the toll at 172 abducted worshippers. “The attackers came in numbers and blocked the entrance of the churches and forced the worshippers out into the bush,” he said on Monday. Nine escaped, he added, so 163 are still held.
The numbers differ elsewhere. Usman Danlami Stingo, who represents the area in the state parliament, spoke of three separate attacks during Sunday services and told the Associated Press that 168 people were missing. A police spokesperson told Reuters that gunmen with “sophisticated weapons” hit two churches, and that officers were still working to confirm how many were taken. Kurmin Wali is remote and hard to reach because of bad roads, the spokesperson said.
Police reversal
Police first dismissed the incident. On Tuesday night, national police spokesman Benjamin Hundeyin issued a statement confirming an “abduction” had taken place on Sunday. He said the earlier denials were “intended to prevent unnecessary panic while facts were being confirmed”. The statement gave no figure for the victims.
Hundeyin said security operations were under way, “with a clear focus on locating and safely rescuing the victims and restoring calm to the area”. Police have said troops and other agencies were sent to the area to track the abductors.
A familiar pattern
Kajuru district is a hotspot for bandit attacks, and Kaduna has seen clashes between Christian farmers and Fulani Muslim cattle herders. The fighting centres on land and shrinking resources, though it runs along ethnic and religious lines on the surface. Experts say both Christians and Muslims are targeted in Nigeria’s conflicts, often without distinction, and that claims of a religious war are simplistic.
Most of the kidnappings are for ransom. A recent report by the consultancy SBM called it a “structured, profit-seeking industry” that made about $1.66 million over a year. In November, gangs seized more than 300 students and teachers from a Catholic school in neighbouring Niger State, and they were freed weeks later in two batches.
US President Donald Trump has focused on the killing of Christians in Nigeria. Nigeria’s government rejects the description of its security crisis as a “Christian genocide”. In December the United States struck militants linked to the Islamic State group in the northwestern state of Sokoto.
Sources
- Nigeria: Gunmen kidnap more than 160 in church attacks
- Nigerian police confirm gunmen abducted villagers, after initial denials
