At least 12 children kidnapped in central Nigeria

Armed men have kidnapped around a dozen children in central Nigeria's Niger state, local and security sources told AFP on Sunday.

Gunmen on motorcycles abducted the children on Saturday near the town of Maigujeri in Rafi district while they were returning from a farm where they had been helping their school teacher harvest maize, the sources said.

A security report seen by AFP said 18 children had been abducted, while local resident Mohammed Abdullahi said the number was closer to 12.

The kidnapping is the latest in a wave of attacks by armed criminal gangs, known locally as bandits, who have intensified raids, abductions and cattle theft in Niger state in recent months.

One child shot

"They were kidnapped on their way back home from their teacher's farm," Abdullahi said, adding that one child was shot and was receiving treatment at a hospital in Minna, the state capital.

The abduction follows a string of mass kidnappings in the state by criminal gangs, some of which have forged links with terrorist groups operating in northwestern and central Nigeria.

At least 47 farmers, many of them women, were abducted in September 2026 while harvesting groundnuts, while around 50 children were kidnapped from a farm in August and later released after a ransom was paid.

More than 250 children from a Catholic boarding school in Papiri, also in Niger state, were abducted last November and freed a month later after a large ransom payment.

TRT Afrika / AFP — TRT Afrika / AFP

Photo: Reuters