abducted - The African Mirror

Jul

2022

Two Catholic priests abducted in Nigeria, diocese says

TWO Nigerian Catholic priests have been abducted in Nigeria's northern state of Kaduna, the local diocese said, nearly two weeks after another priest was taken from his parish in the same state. Fathers John Mark Cheitnum and Donatus Cleopas were abducted in the town of Lere after they arrived for a parish function at Christ the King Catholic Church, Yadin Garu, the diocese said. It was not immediately clear who was behind the abduction. Kidnappers abducted another priest from his rectory in Kaduna state earlier this month while parishioners were waiting for him to conduct the morning mass, the local…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

136, not 200 Nigerian students abducted

NEWS

GUNMEN abducted 136 students from an Islamic school in the north-central Nigerian state of Niger on Sunday, a state official said on Wednesday, lower than the estimate of 200 previously offered by the federal government. An armed gang on motorcycles attacked the town of Tegina in the state on Sunday. State government officials in the following days said they were contacting parents to ascertain the exact number of missing children. Nigeria's president, in a statement issued late on Monday, said security agents were searching for around 200 students. Niger state's deputy governor, Ahmed Mohammed Ketso, told reporters the number of…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Tears, singing as abducted Nigerian students return

NEWS

NEARLY two months after their abduction by armed gunmen, more than two dozen students in northwest Nigeria's Kaduna state were reunited with jubilant family members on Friday amid tears and celebratory singing. Thirty-nine students were taken from a forestry college at gunpoint on March 11. Ten were later released, and their parents said this week that two had escaped. The remaining 27 told reporters they were held in a forest, periodically beaten with sticks and guns, and allowed to contact their families only to beg for ransom. Female students said they tore their clothing to use as sanitary pads. "The…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Ugandan opposition say 3 000 detained or abducted

NEWS

ELIAS BIRYABAREMA UGANDAN opposition leader Bobi Wine and his party have revealed that around 3,000 of his supporters had been detained or abducted by state agents since November when protests flared over his arrest during a presidential election campaign. The police said they were investigating all reports of disappearances. They have previously said they arrested nearly 600 people in connection with the November unrest, and accused protesters of rioting and looting. Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo and President Yoweri Museveni's spokesman Don Wanyama did not immediately answer telephone calls seeking comment on the assertions. Wine, who is also a pop star,…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Gunmen abduct Kenyan just acquitted in shopping mall attack trial, relative says

NEWS

GUNMEN have abducted a man moments after he was released from state custody in the Kenyan capital a day after he was acquitted in one of the country's most high-profile terrorism cases, his sister has revealed. A Kenyan court had acquitted Liban Abdullah Omar on Wednesday of charges of helping al Qaeda-linked Somali militants storm Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall in a 2013 attack in which at least 67 people were killed. Two other defendants were found guilty of assisting the jihadist attackers. The abduction occurred on Thursday as Omar was in a taxi accompanied by some relatives heading home after…