Police have confirmed that eighty worshippers who were kidnapped by gunmen in Kaduna state, northern Nigeria, have returned home after several weeks.
The victims were part of a group of 177 people taken last month during raids on three churches in the remote village of Kurmin Wali. State police spokesman Mansur Hassan said the group escaped on the day of the attack but hid in nearby villages for two weeks because they were afraid of being caught again.
Authorities are still working to free the 86 hostages who remain with the kidnappers. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which is part of a larger increase in kidnappings for ransom across Nigeria.
At first, police denied the incident and only admitted the mass abduction on 21 January after local residents told the BBC what happened. Amnesty International criticised the slow response, accusing Nigerian authorities of “desperate denial” and calling for urgent action to stop what it called the normalisation of mass abductions.
Kidnappings are happening more often in Nigeria. In November, over 300 students and teachers were taken from a Catholic school in nearby Niger state and later released in two groups.
Nigeria is facing several security problems at the same time, including Islamist insurgency in the north-east, separatist unrest in the south-east, and violent clashes between herders and farmers in central areas. Analysts say the government’s response is weakened by corruption, poor coordination, and a lack of funding for local police.
The growing insecurity has caught the world’s attention. On Christmas Day, the United States launched airstrikes in north-western Nigeria against Islamist militant camps. President Donald Trump later warned there would be more strikes if attacks on Christians continued.