Nigeria train kidnappers using victims as human shields -president
ABUJA (Reuters) – Armed gangs who kidnapped dozens of passengers in an assault on a prepare in northern Nigeria are utilizing civilians as human shields, making it tough for the army to hold out a rescue mission, President Muhammadu Buhari stated on Monday.
Nigeria’s state railway firm stated final month that 168 folks had been lacking following the March 28 assault.
Native media final week confirmed a video of victims of the kidnap, together with a child just lately born to one of many kidnapped ladies. Reuters couldn’t confirm the video’s authenticity.
Buhari stated the federal government, which has been criticised for not doing sufficient to rescue the passengers, was making an attempt to keep away from a “tragic consequence” in any rescue operation.
“They (the abductors) are utilizing civilians as human shields, thereby making it tough to confront them straight,” he stated in a press release.
“It is a delicate scenario … Any rescue operation that ends in the demise of any hostage can’t be deemed successful.”
Abductions have develop into virtually a each day prevalence in Nigeria, the place the armed gangs abduct folks for ransom and conceal in forests.
The brutal nature of the assaults have elevated insecurity fears in a rustic additionally grappling with an insurgency within the northeast and rising criminality across the nation.
(Reporting by Felix Onuah, Modifying by MacDonald Dzirutwe and John Stonestreet)
