Several armed individuals assaulted this Friday the Central Mosque of Borgu, located in the state of Niger, in central Nigeria, and forcibly took a group of people, as confirmed this Saturday by the Nigerian Police.
The spokesman for the Police Command for the State of Niger, Wasiu Abiodun, has confirmed the kidnapping of an indeterminate number of Muslims, attributed to criminal gangs, according to the Nigerian news portal Sahara Reporters. Abiodun emphasized that no fatalities have been recorded during the assault and thus denied other circulated versions.
Some press reports indicate that among the kidnapped is a 90-year-old man, father of the political representative of the Dekara district, where the attacked mosque is located.
Abiodun detailed that resources have been deployed to try to locate the captives, initiate a rescue operation, and capture the perpetrators of the kidnapping. However, he admitted that the complicated topography of the area and the lack of transportation infrastructure are hindering the progress of the security forces.
In this regard, he mentioned the collapse of a bridge that linked the communities affected by the attack with the local government headquarters of Borgu, which is slowing down the dispatch of reinforcements.
The Nigerian government faces, like other countries in the Sahel, a scenario of chronic insecurity marked by the presence of jihadist groups and criminal networks that operate mainly in the north of the country and obtain funding through kidnapping and extortion.