Gunmen who kidnapped an organization of young men running on a farm in Nigeria’s northwestern Katsina state freed the hostages, police said.
Dozens of men armed on motorcycles abducted young men on Sunday last week from harvesting youths in exchange for a farm on the outskirts of Mairuwa village in Faskari district, police and a local official told AFP.
Authorities had reported in the past that 39 youths had been arrested by kidnappers from criminal gangs demanding a ransom to free the hostages, but on Sunday that number dropped to 21.
Katsina state police spokesman Isah Gambo said late Saturday that the 21 youths abducted from the farm had been released.
“It is with wonderful joy that I announce the death of the 21 employees kidnapped while working on a farm,” Isah said in a statement.
“They were reunited with their families. The investigation is ongoing,” he said.
He did not say whether a ransom had been paid to secure the release of the hostages, which he said included 17 women and 4 children, aged between 15 and 18.
Katsina is one of many states in northwestern and central Nigeria that are terrorized by gangs of thieves known as bandits, who attack villages, kill and kidnap residents, loot and burn homes.
The hostages are released after ransom is paid to the gangs, who are believed to have locked themselves in the vast Rugu forest that straddles Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states.
In the past, bandits have attacked schools and colleges in Nigeria to kidnap large numbers of students, in remote spaces where young people sleep in dormitories.
ABU/WFP/YAD
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