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Witnesses said men carrying guns and machetes set upon two villages in Niger State. Many details about the attack have yet to be confirmed by police.
https://p.dw.com/p/5JFz2 Advertisement Extremists attacked and abducted a number of worshipers in Nigeria's Niger State, authorities said on Saturday.
Police said the armed men attacked a number of villages in the Borgu Local Government Area before storming mosque in the village Kpenya during Friday prayers.
"People were abducted while praying at a Juma’at mosque on Friday," Borgu area council chair Abdullahi Mohammed Nasir told the Associated Press.
"That was when the bad people came and surrounded the mosque and took them away."
Some witnesses recounted extreme violence.
"Soon after finishing the normal Friday prayer, the armed group [...] in their hundreds, wielding guns, knives and machetes, began to attack us," one survivor told the AFP news agency. "They slaughtered some of our people, saying we are not practicing the true teachings of Islam."
Local residents told the AFP and Reuters news agencies that dozens of people — as many as 60 — were kidnapped.
Witnesses also told AFP that the armed men killed several people, although according to police, "the developing report indicated that no life was lost."
No group claimed responsibilityfor the attack in the day that followed and police have not identified the culprits.
One witness told AFP that the gunmen belonged to Lakurawa — an increasingly radical outfit that researchers link to the "Islamic State Sahel Province" group.
Another resident told AFP that the attackers were Ansaru, which split from Boko Haram and is now aligned with al-Qaeda.
Witnesses also said that a third, rival jihadi group known as Mahmuda clashed with the attackers and allowed some of the abductees to escape.
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Although jihadi attacks have declined in Nigeria since the height of Boko Haram's insurgency last decade, the military and police remain overstretched as they face multiple, sometimes overlapping conflicts .
In addition to jihadist insurgency in the north, parts of Nigeria also face violence and kidnappings from non-ideological gangs known locally as "bandits."
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