At least 13 people were abducted on Saturday following an attack by unidentified gunmen on a mosque in the northern Nigerian state of Katsina, authorities have confirmed.
According to reports in the Nigerian newspaper ‘The Premium Times’, the attackers stormed the mosque and demanded that the 20 or so worshippers on the premises go with them, although several managed to escape.
«I was in the third row in the mosque. There was no light, so we used a lamp and some had the flashlight of the cell phone. When the bandits started shouting that we had to follow them, those in the back row and those outside the mosque ran away,» one of the worshippers recounted.
The assailants then opened fire on those who were trying to escape, wounding the imam of the mosque and other people. On the other hand, he pointed out that a self-defense militia later managed to rescue six of the hostages.
Katsina Police spokesman Gambo Isa confirmed the attack and said that «thirteen victims are still in the custody of the terrorists». «Our officers are making efforts to ensure that they are rescued unharmed,» he concluded.
The insecurity in Nigeria, previously centered in the northeast of the country, has spread in recent months to other areas in the north and northwest, raising alarms about the possible expansion of these terrorist and criminal networks.
