Gunmen have released 74 out of over 80 persons kidnapped earlier this month in Nigeria’s northwest Zamfara state after ransoms were paid, the parents and a village chief said on Saturday.
In recent years, violent gangs have targeted numerous local villages in northwest Nigeria, while bandits have continued to carry out attacks in the northeast.
Two parents from Zamfara’s Wadzamai village claimed they paid 20,000 naira each, and their severely malnourished children were among those released on Friday.
Eleven people, according to the village chief of Wadzamai, are still being held captive, but two of them were slain while attempting to flee.
A police spokesperson for Zamfara said they could not immediately comment.
Kidnappers in Nigeria often keep their victims for months in the forest if a ransom is not paid and also demand villagers pay protection fees to be allowed to farm and harvest their crops.
