Bandits have reportedly killed 33 individuals they kidnapped in February, in the northwest region of Nigeria’s Zamfara state, despite receiving a ransom of $33,250, according to local officials and residents on Monday.
For years, Zamfara and other states in central and northwestern Nigeria have been plagued by criminal gangs that conduct fatal raids, abductions, and arson.
“The bandits released only 18 of the 51 people they kidnapped from our village and when we asked (the freed hostages) about the 33 others they said they had been slaughtered by their captors,” Kasimu Ibrahima, a resident of Banga village, told AFP.
Mannir Haidara, a local political administrator, confirmed that some of the captives had been murdered but did not specify how many.
The initial violence arose from competing claims for land and water resources between herders and farmers, but it has now evolved into organised crime, with gangs taking control of neglected rural areas that have little to no government oversight.
In February, bandits invaded the village of Banga in the Kaura Namoda district on motorcycles and kidnapped 51 individuals, including three pregnant women, after killing two others, as reported by residents.
The local community then paid the ransom in two payments.
However, on Friday, only 18 captives returned to Banga, sharing the news of the murder of 33 fellow captives by their kidnappers.
