Over 100 kidnapped in two new attacks in Nigeria

 Abuja. Kidnappers have abducted over 100 people in two new attacks in northwest Nigeria weeks after more than 250 school pupils were seized in the same state, residents and officials told AFP on Monday.

The kidnappings took place separately in the Kajuru area of Kaduna state over the weekend.

On Sunday night, gunmen kidnapped 87 people in Kajuru Station, according to local government chairman Ibrahim Gajere.

"They went and removed people from their homes at gunpoint," he said.

Resident Harisu Dari said groups of attackers known locally as bandits stormed the village at around 10:00 pm and went door to door abducting residents.

A UN source and a former local official, both speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, confirmed the account.

On Saturday, 16 people were kidnapped in Dogon Noma around 10 kilometres (six miles) away, according to Dari, the UN source and the former local official.

Kaduna police and the state's security commissioner did not respond to repeated requests for confirmation.

Last week, gunmen abducted dozens of people from another village in Kajuru district.

Criminal gangs often carry out mass kidnappings in northwest Nigeria, targeting schools, villages and highways where they can quickly snatch large numbers of people for ransom payments.

Earlier this month, gunmen kidnapped more than 250 pupils from a school in Kuriga village about 150 kilometres (93 miles) from Kajuru district, one of the biggest such attacks in years.

The spate of large-scale abductions is challenging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's government, which has promised to tackle insecurity.

Nigerian risk consultancy SBM Intelligence said it had recorded 4,777 people abducted since Tinubu took office in May last year.