87 Reported Missing in Northwest Nigeria as Ransom Payments Triple
At least 87 people, mostly women, were reported missing after two separate weekend attacks in Niger and Zamfara states in northwest Nigeria. Al Jazeera
At least 47 farmers were seized by armed men while harvesting peanuts in the Mariga area of northern Niger State on Saturday. A day later, 40 women were taken in Yargada in neighbouring Zamfara State. Al Jazeera Yargada lies near Gusau, the Zamfara state capital. BBC News Pidgin
Most of the victims were women. In both cases, residents and police described small, mobile armed groups striking farming settlements and rural roads, then leaving with captives before security forces arrived.
In a separate operation in the southeast, police in Abia State said they recovered 28 human skulls and other bones suspected to belong to kidnapped victims. The remains were found after raids on camps linked to criminal groups in forests. Police said the suspects at the scene had fled. Efforts to catch them were intensified. Al Jazeera Abia is in the southeast, far from Niger and Zamfara in the northwest.
The weekend cases follow a large-scale abduction in August 2026, when gunmen took as many as 600 worshippers during Friday prayers at a mosque in Dekera village in Niger State. Residents of Niger State protested on Sept. 21, 2026, over the abduction of hundreds who remained in captivity a month after gunmen attacked several communities. Al Jazeera
The economics are stark. Armed groups raised 7.8 billion naira, nearly $6 million, in ransom payments between July 2025 and June 2026, according to SBM Intelligence, a research firm that tracks security in Nigeria. Ransom here means money paid by families or communities to free captives. That total was more than triple the 2.6 billion naira paid during the same period a year earlier. Al Jazeera
Zamfara has recorded repeated mass abductions over several years. In February 2026, armed men attacked a village in the state, killing at least 50 people and abducting several women and children. Reuters In June 2026, gunmen abducted at least seven students of a polytechnic, a college focused on technical training, in the state, according to police. Reuters
Earlier cases include the abduction of more than 100 people, mostly women and children, in an attack in August 2025 in which local officials said at least two people were killed. Reuters Gunmen kidnapped at least 46 people, including women and children, in a raid on Gana town in January 2025. Reuters In April 2023, gunmen abducted at least 80 people, mostly women and children, in the state. Reuters
Not every reported mass abduction ends in prolonged captivity. Police said at least 80 congregants earlier believed abducted from three churches in northern Nigeria had returned home, a claim disputed by a Christian group in February 2026. Reuters In September 2021, five girls among 73 children kidnapped from a school in the northwest were rescued, according to Zamfara State police. Reuters
The broader context here is a kidnap economy that appears to be expanding rather than shrinking. A tripling of recorded ransom revenue within a year suggests larger victim pools, higher demands per victim, or more reliable payment routes. It helps explain the focus on harvest work and worship gatherings, moments when many civilians are together in open places, much like netting a school of fish at once.
Looking at what this means for the state response, the sequence from Dekera to Mariga and Yargada, punctuated by a public protest on Sept. 21, keeps attention on rural security in Niger State in particular. The Abia find adds another layer, the aftermath in areas where forest camps operate for long periods. For policymakers, the near-term questions are whether ransom flows will fund more recruitment and arms, whether protests shift deployment decisions, and whether geographic spread makes intelligence-led rescues harder in dense forest with scattered groups.
