Dozens have been abducted by men with guns in the north-west of Nigeria village | News of the Gunfight

Residents say that men carrying guns went from house to house and kidnapped people in the north-west of Kakin Dawa town.

Armed men have abducted scores of women and children in northwest Nigeria, the latest in a series of kidnappings that have plagued the region.

Police said the incident happened on Sunday in Kafin Dawa village in Zamfara state. Residents reported that men with guns went from house to house and kidnapped people.

“We found that they kidnapped more than 50 women, including married women and girls,” said Hassan Ya’u, a resident who managed to escape but kidnapped his younger sister.

“The whole village was in fear as there were gunshots during the operation,” said another resident quoted by the Nigerian website Daily Trust, which reported that 43 people were abducted.

Zamfara police said they have deployed security forces in the area.

Kidnappings by armed men, known locally as gangs, are rampant in northwest Nigeria due to high levels of poverty, unemployment and the proliferation of illegal firearms.

In March this year, gunmen kidnapped more than 130 students in the north-west of Kuriga town for money.

The students were released “unharmed” a few weeks later after difficult “stationary” negotiations, the government said at the time.

The kidnapping of Nigerian schools was first carried out by the armed group Boko Haram, who kidnapped 276 students from a girls’ school in Chibok in the north-east of Borno State in 2014. Some girls are never released, most of them are forced into marriage.

In another mass kidnapping in July 2021, armed men took more than 150 students in a raid. The students were reunited with their families after months and they were said to have paid a ransom.

At least 1,400 children have been abducted since 2014.