Gunmen kidnap 28 people on Muslim religious trip in Nigeria

Gunmen ambushed a vehicle in central Nigeria with people travelling for a Muslim religious event and kidnapped 28 people, including women and children, a security report showed Monday.

"On the evening of 21 December, gunmen abducted 28 people, including women and children, while they were travelling to a Maulud gathering," near Zak village in Bashar district in Plateau state, according to the security report prepared for the United Nations and seen by AFP.

The group were going to an event to mark the birth of Prophet Mohammed, when their vehicle was "intercepted", said the report which added that police have launched an investigation into the attack.

Plateau state police did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment.

It is the latest in a string of mass kidnappings in recent weeks, which has put an uncomfortable international spotlight on Nigeria's grim security situation.

The abductions occurred on the same day authorities secured the release of 130 schoolchildren - the last batch of more than 250 snatched from their Catholic boarding school in north-central Niger state a month ago.

The recent spate of kidnappings - mainly involving hundreds of schoolchildren - has prompted the UN to warn of a "surge in mass abductions".

Scores of other people have been seized from places of worship in separate raids.

Nigeria is under intense criticism from the United States, which has threatened military intervention over what it calls the mass killing of Christians.

The Nigerian government and independent analysts reject Washington's framing of the security situation in the country, home to myriad conflicts that kill across ethnic and religious lines.

Nigeria's kidnappings are predominantly for ransom and the crisis has "consolidated into a structured, profit-seeking industry" that raised some $1.66 million between July 2024 and June 2025, according to a recent report by SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based consultancy.