’50 residents abducted’ as gunmen invade Kaduna community

Gunmen have reportedly abducted at least 50 people from Damari community in Birnin-Gwari LGA of Kaduna state.

The gunmen were said to have invaded the community on Saturday after troops of the Nigeria military escorted some residents to neighbouring communities.

In recent weeks, Damari community has reportedly been under the siege of Ansaru insurgents, a faction of Boko Haram.

Ishaq Kasai, chairman of Birnin-Gwari emirate progressives union (BEPU), in a statement on Sunday, said the gunmen invaded the community after the Ansaru insurgents withdrew from the area.

“Birnin-Gwari Emirate Progressives Union (BEPU) has been, in the last five days, alerting the relevant authorities and the general public on the cruel, wicked and heartless attacks by terrorist bandits in Damari, following the withdrawal of Ansaru (a splinter group of Boko Haram ) from the area,” Kasai said.

“The sad event in the last seventy-two hours in Damari town of Kazage Ward in the Eastern part of Birnin-Gwari local government area, Kaduna state, has reached a catastrophic situation.

“As at yesterday, bandits encircled Damari and abducted about 50 people, shortly before and after troops from military field-base from Dogon-Dawa went to the town and escorted some remnants of the residents who were willing to move to comfort zones in neighbouring communities, and even to as far away Zaria.

“The most worrisome situation is where a pregnant woman was running away along with her colleagues and was left away by the fleeing groups, [and] she fell down and delivered a baby boy, but unfortunately, both the mother and the baby lost their lives instantly.

“Damari is considered as the largest town in the entire Eastern part of Birnin-Gwari and with this worrisome development, about 20,000 persons, including women and children, are rendered internally displaced.

“Even today, the bandits returned to the town unchallenged, burnt a vehicle, kidnapped scores, intercepted and maltreated people — a serious development that reflects the level of serious insecurity situation facing our community.”

Meanwhile, efforts to get comments from Mohammed Jalige, Kaduna police spokesman, had not yielded success as of the time of this report.