Bride, bridesmaids, baby kidnapped as bandits raid Sokoto community

Bandits have carried out another mass abduction in Sokoto state, taking 13 women and a baby during an overnight attack, one of several large-scale kidnappings that have unsettled the region in recent weeks.

Residents of Chacho, a community in Sokoto State, said the assault happened between Saturday night and early Sunday. According to one local, a bride and 10 of her bridesmaids were among those taken.

Nigeria has seen a surge in kidnappings, with hundreds of people abducted recently as both jihadist groups and criminal gangs—referred to locally as “bandits”—continue to operate across vast parts of the country.

The worsening insecurity has intensified public pressure on the government. President Bola Tinubu declared a nationwide emergency earlier in the week, while foreign reactions continue to stir controversy. US President Donald Trump has warned of possible military action over what he describes as the killing of Christians by radical Islamist groups.

“Bandits stormed our village last night and kidnapped 14 persons, including a bride and 10 bridesmaids from a house in Zango neighbourhood,” Aliyu Abdullahi, a resident of Chacho, told AFP.

In this part of northern Nigeria, newlyweds follow a tradition in which a bride spends the first night after her wedding with her bridesmaids before the husband moves in later.

Abdullahi said a baby, the infant’s mother and another woman were also taken in the attack.

Mass abductions have become more common in Nigeria since Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls in Chibok in 2014, an incident that drew global condemnation. Since then, extremist groups and heavily armed bandit networks have continued to raid villages, seize residents for ransom, and destroy property across the northwest and centre of the country.

Abdullahi noted that Chacho had experienced a similar attack in October.“We had to pay ransom to secure the freedom. Now, we are faced with the same situation,” he said by phone.

An intelligence briefing reviewed by AFP verified the latest assault.It reported that “Sokoto witnessed a notable uptick in bandit-initiated abductions in November, culminating in the highest number of such attacks in the past year.”

The document also suggested that agreements made by some neighbouring states in an effort to curb violence may have unintentionally encouraged the displacement of bandit groups into new areas.

Security analysts have long argued that such deals give criminal groups room to reorganise and extend their operations.

“As a result, some bandits may be moving into areas with less military pressure. This shift can lead to more mass kidnappings in places like Sokoto, leading to an increase in mass kidnap-for-ransom attacks,” the report said.

AFP