kidnapping - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

Hundreds of Nigerian children are being kidnapped – the government must change its security strategy

SCHOOL abductions have been a trend in Nigeria. The latest took place in Kaduna and Sokoto states, both in the northwest region, when over 300 children were abducted at different times in March 2024. Previous prominent cases have included the Chibok, Dapchi and Kankara abductions, which insurgents claimed to have perpetrated. As a security scholar and analyst who has researched and written extensively on aspects of Nigeria’s security challenges, including kidnapping and allied crimes, I see school abductions as a symptom of government neglect of territorial and human security. Territorial security refers to keeping the country’s geographical spaces (land, borders,…

Mar

2024

By CRISPIAN BALMER

Egyptians thought Regeni was British spy, Italian court told

NEWS

EGYPTIAN police detained an Italian student in Cairo because they thought he was a British spy, taking him to a security facility where he was tortured and murdered, an Italian prosecutor told a Rome court on Monday. Italy has charged four Egyptian security agents with kidnapping and killing Giulio Regeni, a postgraduate student at Britain's Cambridge University, in Cairo in 2016. The four men are being tried in absentia and have never responded publicly to the accusations. The Egyptian authorities have repeatedly denied any state involvement in Regeni's disappearance and death. "The overall picture that has emerged is that of a web…

Nov

2023

By The African Mirror

Liverpool’s Diaz meets father first time since latter’s kidnapping

FOOTBALL

LIVERPOOL and Colombia winger Luis Diaz has reunited with his father for the first time since the latter's kidnapping ordeal, the Colombian football federation said on Tuesday. Luis Manuel Diaz, 58, was released on Thursday by the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) 12 days after he was taken hostage on Oct. 28 in Barrancas, a rural municipality where he lives in the northern province of La Guajira. The winger remained with Liverpool through this period up to Sunday's Premier League win over Brentford, before returning to Colombia ahead of Thursday's World Cup qualifier against Brazil. The Colombian FA shared pictures of the father and…

Oct

2023

By The African Mirror

Gunmen kidnap five Nigerian university students – police

NEWS

GUNMEN in Nigeria kidnapped five female students from a university in the northwestern Katsina state, the police said, the second such abduction involving students in the region within a month. Kidnapping for ransom by armed gangs is rife in northwest Nigeria due to high levels of poverty, unemployment and the proliferation of illegal firearms. Katsina police spokesperson Abubakar Sadiq, in a statement, said the incident occurred early on Wednesday at the Federal University in Dutsin-Ma town. The police have "deployed all its tactical and operational assets with a view to rescuing the victims unhurt", he said, adding one suspect is…

Sep

2023

By AHMED KINGIMI

Sixteen people freed after kidnapping at Nigerian university

NEWS

SIXTEEN students and workers have been freed after they were kidnapped by gunmen who attacked their university in northwest Zamfara state last week, university authorities said. Security problems are one of the major challenges facing President Bola Tinubu, who is yet to spell out his plans to end the abductions, an Islamist insurgency in the northeast, gang and separatist violence in the southeast and farmer and herder clashes in the north-central region. Federal University Gusau said in a statement the attack had caused tension at the institution and students were worried about their safety. "It is against this background that we appeal…

Sep

2023

By AHMED KINGIMI

Nigerian gunmen broke doors, windows in university abduction

NEWS

GUNMEN in Nigeria broke down doors, shattered windows and abducted 24 female students from hostels of a university in northwestern Zamfara state in the early hours, witnesses said, in the latest kidnapping to hit the state. As they marched their victims away, the armed men also took a security guard and 10 construction workers who were sleeping in a makeshift shelter on the premises of Federal University Gusau, local officials said. "The armed bandits arrived on motorcycles and started shooting sporadically, that's when I woke up. They went to the girls' hostels near the campus, breaking windows and doors and…

May

2023

By The African Mirror

Kidnapping in Nigeria: criminalising ransom payment isn’t working – families need support

NEWS

KIDNAPPING for ransom has become a national security threat in Nigeria. How it’s done varies from targeted individuals, to indiscriminate kidnappings and mass kidnapping in schools and communities. And there has been a growing body of research on the subject. However, there remains a gap in the understanding of how families mobilise resources and deliver ransom to kidnappers. Author OLUDAYO TADE, Sociologist/Criminologist/Victimologist and Media Communication Expert, University of Ibadan To fill this gap, my co-researcher and I combined our expertise, mine on the science of criminality and the victims of crime in Nigeria and his on peace and conflict. Our…

Apr

2023

By The African Mirror

Nigerian students escape abductors two weeks after kidnapping

NEWS

EIGHT Nigerian secondary school students kidnapped by gunmen in northern Kaduna state two weeks ago escaped from their captors and were found by villagers who alerted security forces, the state's internal security commissioner said. Armed gangs operating mostly in remote parts of northwest Nigeria have carried out violent attacks against villagers, schools and motorists, abducting hundreds for ransom. The female students were seized by an armed gang on their way from school along with an unknown number of others, authorities said on April 4. Samuel Aruwan, Kaduna commissioner for internal security and home affairs, said the students escaped from a forest between…

Apr

2023

By The African Mirror

Former Indian lawmaker slain live on TV while in police custody

WORLD

A former lawmaker in India's parliament, convicted of kidnapping, was shot dead along with his brother while police were escorting them for a medical check-up in a slaying caught on live television. The dramatic footage of the men being killed was shared across broadcast channels and social media. A gunman is seen reaching over the shoulders of police to point a pistol at the temple of the former lawmaker, Atiq Ahmed, whose turban is blown off as the gun discharges. His brother, Ashraf Ahmed, was shot a split second later. In other footage, filmed by Reuters partner ANI, one gunman…

Apr

2023

By The African Mirror

DRC: Italian envoy’s killers jailed for life

NEWS

SONIA ROLLEY A Democratic Republic of Congo military court sentenced six men to life in prison over the death of the Italian ambassador, his bodyguard and driver, according to a lawyer. Envoy Luca Attanasio, Italian bodyguard Vittorio Iacovacci and their Congolese driver Mustapha Milambo were killed on February 22, 2021, during a botched kidnapping as they drove to a World Food Programme project from the eastern city of Goma. A lawyer representing Italy, Boniface Balamage, told Reuters that five of the people sentenced to life were already in prison while one was at large and tried in absentia. "On the…