The causes of rising numbers of kidnappings are multiple, including difficult economic times and overstretched security forces facing threats on several fronts.
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Aminu Magami, a taxi driver in northwest Nigeria, froze in fear when more than 20 gunmen stormed an expressway one night in February, shooting into the air.
“One of them ran towards my car” as Magami was stuck, the road blocked. “I just sat there and raised my hands, begging them,” he recounted.
Magami was taken hostage in his native Zamfara State, where he was held captive and tortured for nearly a month.
His home state is reeling from a spate of attacks, with 203 crime-related deaths and 281 kidnappings in the first three months of 2019, according to Nigeria’s top police officer, Mohammed Adamu.
This is nearly half the 685 kidnappings countrywide in the first quarter of the year – an average of seven per day.
Another 1,071 people were killed in crime-related violence, Adamu recently told reporters.
In Nigeria, kidnappings for ransom have been a risk in the oil-rich south for decades.
But in recent years, the practice has spread to other areas, with northwest Nigeria – the home region of President Muhammadu Buhari – an increasingly concerning criminal front.
The number of reported abductions across the country is rising, according to security experts.
The causes are multiple, including difficult economic times and overstretched security forces facing threats on several fronts – Islamist insurgents and land battles between herders and farmers.
Torture
Magami and his passengers, two women and three children – including a baby – were kidnapped in Gusau, the capital of Zamfara state.
They were chained and held captive in dark huts with dozens of others, in a dense forest that spreads across northwest Nigeria and neighbouring Niger, a haven for criminal and militia groups.
Armed kidnappers called Magami’s family daily, demanding huge ransoms. His family -traders and farmers – struggled to get together the 440,000 naira ($1,222) to pay the captors.
