‘Bandits’ kidnap 18 women, children in Nigeria

Gunmen killed one man and abducted 18 women and children during a raid on a village in Nigeria’s Zamfar state, in the northwest, local sources told AFP Saturday (September 13, 2025).

The attackers, from kidnap and cattle-rustling gangs known as “bandits”, bandits stormed Birnin Zarma village at dawn Friday in the latest violence in the region, the sources said.

Zamfara is one of several states in northwest and central Nigeria that have been plagued by bandit raids for years.

“The bandits attacked the village around 5:00 am while people were preparing for morning prayers,” said Ibrahim Bello, a Birnin Zarma resident.

“They broke into a house and shot dead a man and injured his wife before herding 18 women and children out of the village,” Bello said.

The attackers were believed to be from neighbouring Anka district where they maintain camps in a nearby forest, said Lawal Umar, a resident of neighbouring town of Bukkuyum, confirming details of the raid.

“The bandits kidnapped 18 women and children from the village after killing a farmer named Garba Gambo and leaving his wife with gunshot wounds,” said Umar.

Troops stationed in Bukkuyum to protect the area from bandits incursion could not get to the village to repel the attack as the river separating Birnin Zarma and Bukkuyum was in spate, said Umar.

That meant there were no boats available to ferry them across.

Residents of Birnin Zarma, 170 km (105 miles) from the State capital Gusau, were still waiting for a ransom demand from the gang, said Bello.

Late last month 15 passengers, mostly women and children, fleeing bandits attacks on three villages in neighbouring Gummi district drowned when their boat capsized mid-stream.