Daily Times

Gunmen from a criminal gang kidnapped 36 people after attacking several villages and two churches in Nigeria’s northwest Kaduna state, a local government official said Monday. Heavily armed gangs known locally as bandits are ravaging parts of northwest Nigeria and Sunday’s attack came two weeks after gunmen killed 40 people in a raid on a church in the usually safer southwest of the country. Local security commissioner Samuel Aruwan told AFP on Monday that three dozen people were snatched by gunmen who ransacked three villages before storming the Maranatha Baptist Church and St Moses Catholic Church in Rubu in the Kajuru area of Kaduna state. Three people were also killed in the raid, he said. “We have established 36 people were kidnapped by the bandits who attacked the villages in Kajuru local government on Sunday,” Aruwan said. “Yesterday, they released two of the hostages, including a community chief.