Nigeria Kuchi raid: ‘My children hid with goats to trick kidnappers’

Niger state’s security commissioner, Muhammed Bello, said his department, along with “various security agencies”, were investigating the abduction, although he disputed the number of people who had been kidnapped.

Local officials suspect the gunmen may have belonged to the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, because they carried jihadist flags during Friday’s attack.

Boko Haram fighters are usually based in north-eastern states but in the last few years some have also been active in north-western and central areas of the country where criminal kidnap gangs, known locally as bandits, operate.

The armed men who raided Kuchi spent more than two hours in the area cooking food, drinking tea and looting shops and homes, according to local government Chairman Aminu Abdulhamid Najume.

“There was no security intervention,” he told the BBC.

“Kuchi and neighbouring communities remain at the mercy of armed groups.”

The paying of ransoms was outlawed in 2021, but people say unless they are paid little is done by the security forces to rescue captives – or protect them in the first place.

In an act of desperation the Kuchi community had recently hired local hunters as vigilantes for protection, Mr Najume told the BBC.

But he bemoaned that he and other local government officials often lacked the necessary funds and power to act as such matters tended to be in the hands of regional governors.

Several communities in the state have been attacked in recent months by armed gangs killing residents or kidnapping them for ransom. In April, six soldiers were killed in an ambush in the region, while responding to a distress call.

Describing Friday’s attack, Mr Najume said that the gunmen “moved from house to house, picking their victims after killing 10 villagers, including five local hunters in gunfights.”

Three other residents were injured.

Most of the victims are women, children and the elderly.

There is now heightened tension and trauma in neighbouring communities, says Mr Najume, as residents of Kuchi mourn their dead and await information on those kidnapped.

According to another resident, the armed men returned to Kuchi on Saturday night and kidnapped more people, including the head of the village and his two wives.

Most people are now said to have fled Kuchi altogether.