{"id":43508,"date":"2026-08-22T17:51:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T15:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=43508"},"modified":"2026-08-22T17:51:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T15:51:53","slug":"gunmen-abduct-worshippers-from-nigeria-mosque-police","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/gunmen-abduct-worshippers-from-nigeria-mosque-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Gunmen abduct worshippers from Nigeria mosque: Police"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"x_divRplyFwdMsg\">\n<div aria-hidden=\"true\" data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Armed men abducted several worshippers from a \u200cmosque in Nigeria&#8217;s north-central Niger state during Friday prayers, police said on Saturday, in the latest mass kidnapping \u200bin a region plagued by violent gangs.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Police \u200bSpokesperson Wasiu Abiodun said the attackers stormed \u2060Kpenya Mosque in the Dekara district of \u200bthe Borgu local government area at about 2 p.m. (1300 \u200bGMT) on Friday after first attacking Gidan-Zana and Kpenya villages.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The developing report indicated that no life was lost, while \u200bjoint security detachment has been deployed to \u200bthe area for assessment and rescue operations,&#8221; Abiodun said in \u200ca \u2060statement.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He said police could not confirm figures.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Local residents told <em>Reuters<\/em> that more than 60 worshippers were kidnapped in the attack which appeared coordinated and \u200boccurred simultaneously in \u200bDekara and \u2060three other communities in Borgu while residents were observing Friday prayers.\u00a0<em><span class=\"x_spanWithBackgroundColor\">Reuters<\/span>\u00a0<\/em>\u200bcould not immediately verify the account \u200bindependently.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Mass \u2060kidnappings for ransom have become common in parts of northwestern and north-central Nigeria, where heavily armed criminal \u2060gangs, \u200blocally known as bandits, frequently \u200braid villages, schools and highways.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15887,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-43508","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Mass \u2060kidnappings for ransom have become common in parts of northwestern and north-central Nigeria.","published_date":"","news_description":"Mass \u2060kidnappings for ransom have become common in parts of northwestern and north-central Nigeria.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43508","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\/43508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43509,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43508\/revisions\/43509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=43508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}