There's rising concern amongst native authorities and analysts of potential alliances between the bandits and different armed teams like Boko Haram.
Gunmen who attacked a prepare in northwest Nigeria and killed at the least eight individuals have launched a video of a financial institution govt who was amongst an unspecified variety of passengers taken hostage.
The assault on the prepare between the capital Abuja and town of Kaduna final week was a serious escalation in violence in northwest Nigeria blamed on closely armed prison gangs, identified regionally as bandits.
The video posted on-line on Wednesday exhibits Alwan Ali-Hassan, director of Nigeria’s Financial institution of Agriculture, flanked by 4 armed masked males in navy uniforms dealing with the digital camera. In it, they known as on the authorities to fulfill the calls for of his captors to safe the discharge of different hostages who “are in a dire state of affairs”.
AFP stated it couldn't independently confirm the authenticity of the video however members of the family confirmed Ali-Hassan was the one within the video and that he was launched by the gunmen on Wednesday.
No particular group has claimed accountability for the video shot in an undisclosed forest space with an armoured automobile within the background.
The boys don't declare affiliation to a bunch, however the recording resembles propaganda movies despatched by armed teams waging a greater than 12-year insurrection to determine an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria’s northeast.
The opening prayer in Arabic by one of many masked males is similar as in all of the earlier propaganda movies launched by Boko Haram and the Islamic West Africa Province (ISWAP). The positioning of the gunmen with the hostage can be typical of these movies.
Within the video, the speaker stated they determined to launch the hostage out of compassion as a “Ramadan gesture”, referring to the Muslim holy month of fasting, and his “superior age”.
Though the speaker claimed no ransom was paid for Ali-Hassan’s launch, household sources stated they needed to pay cash to the captors.
Survivors of the March 28 prepare assault say gunmen opened hearth after blowing up the railway.
One week after the prepare assault, the whereabouts of 168 passengers are nonetheless unknown, the Nigerian Railway Company (NRC) stated, although it isn't clear what number of could have returned house and never contacted officers.
Northwest and central Nigeria have been terrorised by prison gangs who raid villages, killing residents and kidnapping for ransom, in addition to looting houses. However their assaults and abductions have intensified.
Though the gangs who're motivated by monetary beneficial properties haven't any ideological leaning, there may be concern amongst native authorities and analysts of rising potential alliances with Boko Haram or different related teams.
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