Armed bandits stormed the Kasuwan Garba community in Mariga Local Government Area of Niger State on Tuesday night, abducting 29 women and a young male child. The gunmen invaded the agricultural settlement during a late-night raid, operating unchallenged for hours while marching victims into nearby forest reserves. Local sources confirmed that the attackers systematically targeted residential compounds, rounding up women while male residents fled into surrounding bushes for safety.
The latest mass abduction highlights the deteriorating security situation across agrarian communities in Niger State, where rural terror groups routinely target vulnerable settlements. Local agricultural activities face severe paralysis as farmers abandon harvesting operations due to persistent fears of ambush and hostage-taking. Security forces stationed across the local government area have mounted search operations, yet remote forest terrain continues to complicate tracking efforts and intelligence collection.
Community leaders expressed deep frustration over delayed response times from law enforcement agencies despite advance warnings regarding bandit movements in the district. The incident comes amid a broader surge in rural kidnappings across North-Central Nigeria, where criminal syndicates exploit vast unpoliced spaces to demand exorbitant ransoms. Federal and state authorities face growing public pressure to deploy permanent military outposts to protect vulnerable agricultural hubs from recurring attacks.