Police say three villages and a mosque had been attacked, and worshippers kidnapped in central Niger State.
Printed On 22 Aug 2026
Armed males have kidnapped dozens of individuals throughout an assault on a mosque and surrounding villages in Nigeria’s central Niger State, survivors and police officers say.
The raiders stormed Kpenya Mosque within the Dekara district of Borgu Native Authorities Space at round 2pm (13:00 GMT) on Friday, after first attacking the villages of Gidan-Zana and Kpenya, police spokesperson Wasiu Abiodun stated on Saturday.
Beneficial Tales
listing of three gadgetsfinish of listing
Abiodun instructed the Reuters information company that police had been conscious of the kidnappings however had not obtained stories of anybody being killed, and {that a} “joint safety detachment has been deployed to the world for evaluation and rescue operations”.
He stated police couldn’t but affirm the quantity of people that had been taken.
Native residents instructed Reuters that greater than 60 worshippers had been kidnapped, however the determine couldn’t be independently verified.
Individually, residents instructed the AFP information company that individuals had been additionally killed, one other declare that might not instantly be confirmed.
Jibril Ahmad, a survivor of the assault on Dekara, blamed members of the Lakurawa armed group.
“Quickly after ending the traditional Friday prayer, the armed group of Lakurawa, of their tons of, wielding weapons, knives and machetes, started to assault us,” Ahmad instructed AFP, claiming that individuals had been “slaughtered”.
Throughout the assault, a 3rd group, Mahmuda, intervened and clashed with the abductors, permitting some abductees to flee, he stated.
Federal lawmaker Jafaru Mohammed instructed AFP that a number of close by villages had been additionally struck.
“Some members of the Mahmuda group had been in opposition to the doctrine of the Lakurawa, and after they heard of what the Lakurawa had been doing, they fought them,” Mohammed stated.
The assault unfolded in a area close to Nigeria’s western border with Benin that has seen rising exercise from native armed teams and fighters from the neighbouring area, even because the nation’s 17-year armed insurrection stays concentrated in the northeast.
The violence in Niger State continued into Saturday. Resident Abdullahi Ahmad stated the group returned to the world to grab extra folks as a “bargaining chip” upfront of an anticipated troop deployment, and planted landmines on the street out of Dekara.
“A person and his household who had been fleeing the city yesterday had been killed when their automotive hit a landmine planted by the terrorists. Everybody resides in worry,” he stated.
Mass abductions have been an indicator tactic of the nation’s armed teams and have advanced right into a profitable, multimillion-dollar trade involving networks of each ideological and nonideological gangs throughout Nigeria’s northwest and central areas.
