Nigeria: More Than Twenty University Students Kidnapped in the Center

Nigeria: More Than Twenty University Students Kidnapped in the Center

At around 17.30 local time (16.30 GMT) on Friday, armed men ambushed and abducted them in the Otukpo area of Benue state.

More than twenty medical and dental students and an official were kidnapped on Friday by unidentified gunmen in central Nigeria’s Benue state as they headed for a conference, police said.

Related:
Nigeria: Protesters Say Protests Will Continue

The young people from the universities of Maiduguri (north-east) and Jos (centre) were travelling together to the annual convention of the Federation of Catholic Students of Medicine and Dentistry (FECAMDS), in the town of Enugu, in southeastern Nigeria.

At around 17.30 local time (16.30 GMT) on Friday, armed men ambushed and abducted them in the Otukpo area of Benue state.

“The news of the kidnapping is true (…). An investigation is under way,” Benue Police Command spokesperson Catherine Anene told local media outlet ‘Vanguard’.

In Nigeria, armed men kidnapped more than 20 medical and dental students. | @AUC_PAPS @AUCTCentre @AfripolA @PoliceNG

The students were on their way to the annual convention of the Federation of Catholic Medical and Dental Students (FECAMDS) in Enugu when they were ambushed… pic.twitter.com/HTQw3uVSDM

— AUC3I (@AUC31) August 16, 2024

Some states of Nigeria, especially in the central and north-west, are under constant attack by “bandits”, a term used in the country to describe criminal gangs that commit assaults and mass kidnappings to demand large ransoms and whose members are sometimes called “terrorists”.

The attacks are repeated despite repeated promises to end the violence by the Nigerian government, which claims to have reinforced its security forces.