Dozens of worshippers feared taken from Nigerian churches return

Church

Nigeria –  Around half of the 166 Christian worshippers thought to have been kidnapped by gunmen in northern Nigeria last month fled during the attack and have returned home after hiding in other villages, a local leader said Sunday.

Some 86 are still believed to remain in captivity, the leader said.The January 18 kidnapping during Sunday services at three churches was the latest in a wave of mass abductions targeting both Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, attacks that have piled international scrutiny on insecurity in the country.

Ishaku Dan’azumi, a traditional chief of Kurmin Wali in northern Kaduna state and a senior church clergy, had said that the raids resulted in 177 people being seized, with 11 escaping.

On Sunday he told AFP that of the 166 missing, 80 had returned home, adding that they had fled during the raids and took cover in neighbouring villages.

“We thought all the 166 that were missing were kidnapped, but it turned out that some fled and sought refuge in other villages,” he told AFP by phone from his village.

“We have been able to trace 80 of the worshippers that were missing during the attack,” he said.

“All the 80 have returned. It is now clear 86 people are being held by the kidnappers”.

The abductions were carried out by suspected gangs known as “bandits”.

After a diplomatic offensive over what US President Donald Trump claimed was the mass killing of Christians in particular, the United States on Christmas day launched strikes in Nigeria targeting militants that authorities said were linked to the Islamic State group.

But the one-time strikes have done virtually nothing to rein in the rampant violence in the west African nation, which faces jihadists and bandits across its north as well as farmer-herder conflicts over land and resources.

The mass kidnappings in Kaduna followed another mass abduction — and subsequent release – of hundreds of Catholic schoolchildren in neighbouring Niger state late last year.

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Source: AFP

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