Over 50 wedding guests abducted in northwest Nigeria

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria

Over 50 wedding guests were abducted by bandits on a road in Nigeria northwest’s Zafara State, but later about 20 escaped, said a local official.

The victims, most of them phone accessories traders, were returning from a wedding party of one of their colleague when bandits ambushed their buses along the Sokoto-Zamfara road and kidnapped over 50 of them, Ashiru Zurmi, Zamfara’s secretary of union of communication, confirmed on Sunday.

"Over 50 people were abducted but Alhamdulillah (praise God) over 20 people escaped," he said.

Zurmi said the over 20 escapees were later seen hours after the incident which occurred late Saturday.

He said the bandits have not contacted the union or any of the victims’ relatives.

The country's northwest region has been experiencing banditry and mass abduction of civilians and students by armed groups for nearly two years now.