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Olukayode Jaiyeola/NurPhoto through Getty Ima
- Gunmen who lately carried out a high-profile assault on a prepare in Nigeria have launched a video exhibiting hostages they kidnapped within the assault.
- Within the two-minute video, round two dozen persons are seen sitting in a forest space, together with women and men.
- The pictures had been the primary indicator of what number of passengers might have been kidnapped within the brazen raid, by which eight individuals had been killed.
Gunmen who carried out a high-profile assault on a prepare in northwest Nigeria final month have launched a video exhibiting about two dozen of the hostages they kidnapped within the assault.
The pictures had been the primary indicator of what number of passengers might have been kidnapped within the brazen raid, by which eight individuals had been killed.
Within the two-minute video, round two dozen persons are seen sitting in a forest space, together with women and men. No less than one man seems to be from Southeast Asia whereas no less than each other seems Caucasian.
Behind them a gaggle of gunmen stand in a line.
“We’re the passengers who left Abuja for Kaduna on Monday on 28 March, 2022. We had been seized on our manner,” one man says in Hausa language within the video.
“Since then it is just us that is aware of the dire state of affairs we’re in, there are ladies and youngsters, there are aged individuals with well being challenges.”
AFP couldn’t independently confirm the video, which was disseminated on social media.
However the CEO of Nigeria’s Financial institution of Agriculture, Alwan Ali-Hassan, seems within the recording.
He appeared in a earlier video earlier than he was later launched in what his captors mentioned was a goodwill gesture for the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan.
Ali-Hassan’s household confirmed final week it was him within the first video and that he had been freed by his captors.
The delicate assault noticed gunmen blow up the tracks to halt a prepare from the capital Abuja to Kaduna — Nigeria’s flagship rail service.
They then opened hearth on the coaches earlier than seizing an unknown variety of passengers from the prepare’s so-called VIP part.
There was no declare of duty, though the finger of blame swiftly pointed at closely armed legal gangs often called bandits who’ve ravaged elements of northwest and central Nigeria.
However analysts mentioned the propaganda-style format of the primary video, a number of the language and the usage of explosives within the assault have raised worries that jihadists might have participated within the assault.
Bandit gangs go after monetary achieve and ransom funds and often haven’t any ideological or spiritual motives. However there may be concern amongst native authorities and analysts over alliances with Islamist militants.
Nigeria’s safety forces are battling a 12-year jihadist insurgency within the nation’s northeast the place Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) function.
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