MINNA — Armed men have kidnapped scores of worshippers and residents during attacks on a mosque and nearby villages in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State, police and local sources said, in the latest mass abduction to hit Nigeria’s north-central region.
The attackers stormed Kpenya Mosque in the Dekara district at about 2 p.m. on Friday, shortly after raiding Gidan-Zana and Kpenya villages, Niger State Police Command spokesman Wasiu Abiodun said. He confirmed that an unspecified number of people were abducted during prayers, while others fled into nearby forests.
Abiodun said police had not received confirmed reports of deaths and could not yet give an official figure for those kidnapped. He added that a joint security detachment had been deployed to the area for assessment and rescue operations.
Local accounts, however, suggested the scale of the attack was severe. Residents told Reuters that more than 60 worshippers were abducted, while the Borgu area council chairman, Abdullahi Mohammed Nasir, told The Associated Press that at least 60 people were taken and several others sustained gunshot injuries while trying to escape.
Some residents also claimed that people were killed during the attack, but those casualty reports had not been independently confirmed by police as of Saturday.
One survivor, Jibril Ahmad, blamed the assault on members of the Lakurawa armed group, saying the attackers arrived in large numbers with guns, knives and machetes after Friday prayers. He told AFP that a rival group, identified locally as Mahmuda, later clashed with the assailants, allowing some abductees to escape.
Federal lawmaker Jafaru Mohammed also said several communities around Dekara were affected. According to him, members of the Mahmuda group opposed the Lakurawa fighters and confronted them during the raid.
The violence reportedly continued into Saturday, with residents saying the attackers returned to seize more people ahead of an expected military deployment. One resident said a family fleeing the area was killed when their vehicle struck a landmine allegedly planted on a road out of Dekara, though authorities had not confirmed the claim.
The attack occurred near Nigeria’s western border with Benin, an area where security officials and analysts have warned of growing activity by armed groups operating across forested border corridors. Borgu and neighbouring communities have increasingly faced kidnappings, village raids and attacks by criminal and extremist groups.
Mass abductions have become a major security crisis across Nigeria’s northwest and north-central states, where armed groups frequently kidnap villagers, travellers, schoolchildren and worshippers for ransom.
For residents of Dekara and surrounding villages, Friday’s attack has deepened fear in a region already struggling with weak security presence, difficult terrain and porous borders.
