Gunmen in Nigeria abducted 35 individuals from a university in the northwestern Zamfara state on Friday, as reported by the governor’s spokesperson. This marks the first significant student abduction of the year.
In recent years, armed groups have plagued the northwest, engaging in activities such as kidnapping for ransom, looting, community destruction, and the killing of civilians. The efforts of security forces to curtail their activities have yielded limited success.
Mugira Yusuf, the spokesperson for the Zamfara state governor, reported that in the early hours of Friday, armed individuals abducted 24 students, 10 staff members, and a security guard from the Federal University of Gusau.
The abduction of students, once a notorious tactic employed by Islamist militants to instill fear among the population, has now evolved into a lucrative enterprise for armed gangs that demand ransom payments.