{"id":30841,"date":"2026-04-05T08:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=30841"},"modified":"2026-04-05T08:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:40:08","slug":"nigeria-launches-manhunt-after-abductions-by-bandits-in-northwest-zamfara","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/nigeria-launches-manhunt-after-abductions-by-bandits-in-northwest-zamfara\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria launches manhunt after abductions by bandits in northwest Zamfara"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nigerian security forces were in pursuit of gunmen after a large group of bandits abducted residents from villages \u200cin northwest Zamfara state, police said, following one of the region\u2019s largest recent attacks.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The gunmen raided Kurfa Danya and Kurfan Magaji villages in the Bukkuyum area on Thursday, opening fire on vehicles and \u2060homes before sweeping through the communities, a local official said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Umar Abubakar Faru, the local council Chairperson, told Reuters more than 150 people, mostly women and children, were abducted and taken toward surrounding forest areas, forcing residents to flee and leaving villages largely deserted.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Zamfara state police confirmed the attack but said the \u200cnumber \u2060of abducted people was still being verified.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The police in a statement said a joint team of police, military and other security agencies had been deployed and were \u2060actively pursuing the attackers.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Some residents who escaped into surrounding areas were taken to hospital, police said, adding that rescue \u2060operations were ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Northwest Nigeria has struggled for years with bandit violence, including mass kidnappings for ransom \u2060and village raids, with armed groups operating from vast forest hideouts across the region.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":30842,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-30841","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Nigerian security forces were in pursuit of gunmen after a large group of bandits abducted residents","published_date":"2026-04-05 08:38:34","news_description":"Nigerian security forces were in pursuit of gunmen after a large group of bandits abducted residents","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30844,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30841\/revisions\/30844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}