Kaduna govt says 2,553 persons kidnapped, 888 killed in 9 months by bandits

The Kaduna State Government has revealed that at least 888 people were killed in violent attacks by bandits across the state in the last nine months.

This was contained in the quarterly security report presented by the State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, during an enlarged security meeting on Wednesday,

The report also showed that a total number of 343 people were killed by bandits between July and September this year alone, while 2,553 people were kidnapped by bandits in various communities across the state from January to September 2021.

Aruwan further linked the deaths to kidnappings, banditry, communal clashes, violent attacks, and reprisals that cut across all ethnic and religious groups in the state.

The Commissioner also said that 949 people were kidnapped in the first quarter, 774 were abducted in the second quarter, while 830 were kidnapped in the last three months.

Analysing the security report, he said, “From July to September 2021, a total of 343 persons died due to banditry, communal clashes, violent attacks and reprisals. Of this, 50 were women, and 22 were children. Southern Kaduna district records 193 deaths in the third quarter, over 56% of the total.

Read also: Bandits abduct three seminarians at Kaduna institute

“This number is largely made up of victims of violent attacks and reprisals in Zango Kataf, Kaura, and Nauru LGAs. These areas witnessed a series of clashes early in the year, which spiraled into a succession of increasingly deadly communal and inter-ethnic attacks across the three LGAs, 114 people died in Zango Kataf LGA, and 19 in Kaura LGA in the period under review.”

In his statement, Governor Nasir El-Rufai while sympathising with the victims of the attacks, ordered for the immediate compensation of surviving victims and relatives of the deceased.

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