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July 21,2021

Anna Murray 

On June 8, armed men known as bandits stormed Manawa village in northwestern Nigeria, bringing one hundred civilians, mostly young mothers and children, to a forest hideout. According to a statement issued on July 20, the hostages were freed after 42 days of captivity following negotiations with their kidnappers by authorities in Nigeria's northwestern state of Zamfara.

The Zamfara state government stated that hostages were released without having to pay a ransom, but provided no further details. Before being returned to their homes, the kidnapped villagers will be medically examined and counseled.

For several years, criminal gangs have attacked, looted, and kidnapped villagers in Northwestern Nigeria. The criminals have been known to seek refuge in the wooded areas of the Rugu Forest, which spans the states of Niger, Katsina, Kaduna, and Zamfara, and have recently been converted into mass kidnappings of schoolchildren or high school students for ransom.

President Muhammadu Buhari, a former army general who has been in power since 2015, has been chastised for his inability to provide security in Africa's most populous country, which is rife with unrest. These gangs are not the only security threat to Nigeria's northern region, where the armed group Boko Haram and its breakaway faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), have been committing security breaches for years. President Muhammadu Buhari, on the other hand, has ordered the military to flush out criminals in Zamfara and neighboring Kaduna and Katsina states.