Dozens of people kidnapped again in Nigeria Inflation in Argentina has risen to more than 270 percent

A few days after the kidnapping of almost 300 schoolchildren in Nigeria, West Africa, dozens of people were kidnapped again. On Tuesday, 61 men and women and later an unknown number of people were kidnapped in Kaduna state in the northwest of the country.

MP Usman Danlami of the Kajuru administrative district said this to the German Press Agency on Wednesday. On Thursday, 287 girls and boys were kidnapped from a school in neighboring Chikun district. Since then, security forces and authorities have been trying to get her released.

Criminal gangs are suspected of being behind the kidnappings. Police announced on Tuesday that additional forces had been sent to search for the schoolchildren, but other approaches were also being taken. According to local media reports, authorities are trying to negotiate with the kidnappers. According to consultancy SB Morgen, 3,620 people were kidnapped in Nigeria alone between July 2022 and June 2023, most of them in Kaduna.

In the north and center of Africa’s most populous country, with more than 220 million inhabitants, both terrorist groups and criminal gangs continue to kidnap people. The purpose is usually to extort ransoms, force recruitment or sexual violence. Almost exactly ten years ago, in April 2014, the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by the Islamist militia Boko Haram in Chibok in the northeastern state of Borno caused worldwide horror. (rbu/sda/dpa)