Armed group kidnaps 39 people during negotiations in northwestern Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen abducted 39 people in northwestern Nigeria as they were meeting with the parents of a suspected bandit leader and kingpin for abductions in the region, the police said Monday.

The abductions took place on Sunday as some 47 people were at the meeting, hoping to negotiate “reconciliation and peace engagement” when the bandit leader arrived with his armed men and seized 39, police spokesperson Yazid Abubakar said in a statement.

The attack took place in the Magamin Diddi community in the Maradun area of Zamfara, a region in northwestern Nigeria. The meeting was not unusual as communities that feel the military does not protect them from constant attacks often negotiate with the armed groups.

Nigeria is facing a complex security crisis, especially in the north, where a more than decade-long insurgency and the activities of armed groups that carry out kidnappings for ransom and illegal mining have heightened the country’s security challenges.

The insurgency, which has been underway for years in the northeast and has spread across the country, has killed thousands of people and displaced millions, according to the United Nations. Attacks by criminal gangs are also rampant across Nigeria.

The latest abduction comes after Nigerian army said on Sunday it freed 360 people seized by the militant Boko Haram group in southern Borno, also in the country’s northeast.

That operation, according to the army, took place in the Mandara mountains, which are a stronghold of the militant group. Boko Haram and its breakaway faction — an Islamic State group affiliate known as Islamic State West Africa Province — are the most prominent Islamic militant groups in the region.

Last month, the West African country said its joint operation with the United States had killed 175 fighters of the IS affiliate.

Analysts say not enough is being done by the government to protect its citizens, despite repeated promises by President Bola Tinubu to curb the crisis.