Again, bandits strike Niger community, kidnap villagers

Gunmen have launched yet another round of attacks in Niger State, abducting at least 10 people from Angwan-Kawo and Kuchipa communities in Shiroro Local Government Area.

The Niger State Police Public Relations Officer, Wasiu Abiodun, confirmed the incident to Channels TV on Thursday, saying it happened on Wednesday night.

According to him, “On November 26, 2025, at about 8pm, a report was received indicating that suspected armed men abducted about ten persons from Angwan-Kawo and Kuchipa villages of Shiroro Local Government Area. Effort is being made to rescue the victims.”

But the violence did not end there.

Earlier on Wednesday, bandits also attacked the Kakuru community in Erena Ward, where they brutalised a blind man and cut off his right hand after taking his mobile phone. The victim is receiving first aid treatment at a patent medicine store in Kuduru.

Residents in Palaita, also under Erena Ward, reported that bandits invaded a rice farm and abducted as many as 24 people, including pregnant women. The figure, however, has not been independently confirmed.

These fresh attacks are coming less than a week after armed men stormed St. Mary’s Catholic School in the Papiri community, Agwara Local Government Area, and abducted more than 300 students and 12 teachers in what has become one of the country’s worst school kidnappings in recent years.