A bride, 10 bridesmaids, a child and two women were abducted during a night raid in Sokoto state.
Armed attackers have abducted 13 women and an infant during an overnight raid in northeastern Nigeria, the latest in a series of mass kidnappings in the West African nation.
A resident told AFP news agency that a bride and 10 of her friends were among those abducted from Chacho village in Sokoto state on the night of Saturday-Sunday.
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Aliyu Abdullahi, a resident of Chacho village, said, “Bandits attacked our village last night and abducted 14 people, including a bride and 10 friends, from a house in Jango neighborhood.”
Abdullahi said a child, the child’s mother and another woman were also taken.
According to Abdullahi, Chacho had already been targeted by bandits in October, who kidnapped 13 people.
“We had to pay ransom for their freedom. Now, we are facing the same situation,” he said.
A Nigerian intelligence report seen by AFP confirmed the attack.
“November saw a significant increase in kidnappings initiated by bandits in Sokoto, marking the highest number of such attacks in the past year,” the report found.
It suggested that deals struck by neighboring states in hopes of getting the bandits to agree to halt their activities may be partly responsible for the increase.
Last week, attackers took hostage 25 students in Kebbi state and more than 300 students in Niger state. Those kidnapped from Kebbi have been rescued and reunited with their parents, while the search for others is ongoing.
Mass kidnappings for ransom have become common in northern Nigeria, where armed gangs target schools and rural communities and often overwhelm local security forces.
The unrest has come under pressure on the Nigerian government and President Bola Tinubu declared a nationwide state of emergency on Wednesday.
Furthermore, United States President Donald Trump recently threatened to carry out attacks in Nigeria in response to alleged anti-Christian violence.
While human rights groups have urged the Nigerian government to do more to quell the unrest in the country, experts say claims of “Christian genocide” are false and simplistic.
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