{"id":31082,"date":"2026-04-08T10:44:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T08:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=31082"},"modified":"2026-04-08T10:44:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T08:44:33","slug":"armed-men-kill-20-abduct-others-in-north-western-nigeria-villages","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/armed-men-kill-20-abduct-others-in-north-western-nigeria-villages\/","title":{"rendered":"Armed men kill 20, abduct others in north-western Nigeria villages"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Armed men in Nigeria killed at least 20 people, including \u200bsecurity guards, and abducted an unknown number \u200cafter attacking villages in north-western Niger state, police and residents said late on Tuesday, the \u200blatest violence plaguing the north of \u200bthe country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The attack happened in Niger&#8217;s Shiroro \u2060district, where kidnapping gangs and Islamist \u200bmilitants are known to operate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Niger state police spokesperson \u200bWasiu Abiodun said gunmen invaded Bagna and Erena villages on Tuesday and, when security responded, two \u200bcommunity guards and a driver were killed \u200band others injured.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">But residents said at least 20 people \u200cwere \u2060killed and that the attackers, who also destroyed homes, operated for several hours and overwhelmed security personnel in the area.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Some \u200bvillagers fled to \u200bthe \u2060nearby towns of Gwada Zumba and Galadima Kogo, the residents said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Insecurity \u200bis Nigeria&#8217;s biggest problem and President \u200bBola \u2060Tinubu is pushing to allow Nigeria&#8217;s 36 states to establish their own police to \u2060help \u200bcurb the violence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16039,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-31082","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Armed men in Nigeria killed at least 20 people","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31082","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":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31084,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31082\/revisions\/31084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=31082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}