ABUJA, Feb 2 — Nearly half the 166 Christian worshippers feared kidnapped by gunmen in northern Nigeria last month have returned home, having fled during the attack to hide in other villages, a local leader said yesterday.

The remaining 86 are still believed to be prisoners, he added.

The January 18 kidnapping during Sunday services at three churches was the latest in a wave of such abductions targeting both Christians and Muslims in Nigeria. The attacks have piled international scrutiny on insecurity in the country.

Ishaku Dan’azumi, a traditional chief of Kurmin Wali in northern Kaduna state and a senior member of the clergy, had said that 177 people had been seized in the raids, with only 11 escaping.

Yesterday, he told AFP that of the 166 missing, 80 had since returned home.

“We thought all the 166 that were missing were kidnapped,” he told AFP by phone from his village.

“But it turned out that some fled and sought refuge in other villages,” he added.

“It is now clear 86 people are being held by the kidnappers.”

‘Fled into the bush’ 

Godiya Ayuba, 34-year-old mother of six, who returned to Kurmin Wali yesterday, said she had fled, walking for hours through forests and farms before she reached another village.

“We saw the gunmen heading towards the church and some of us were able to rush out and fled into the bush,” she told AFP.

“I kept running and slowed down when I was far away from the village,” she told AFP.

Having lost her phone along the way, she had no way of contacting her family. Her host villagers helped her back home.

“I arrived home today. I’m happy but also sad because I found out that two of my sons were among those kidnapped... I’m praying for their safe return along with all the other people kidnapped by the gunmen.”

The abductions are thought to have been carried out by gangs known as “bandits”.

After a diplomatic offensive over what US President Donald Trump claimed was the mass killing of Christians in particular, the United States on Christmas day launched strikes in Nigeria targeting militants that authorities said were linked to the Islamic State group.

But the one-time strikes have done virtually nothing to rein in the rampant violence in the west African nation.

In the north, it has to contend with jihadists and bandits as well as farmer-herder conflicts over land and resources.

The mass kidnappings in Kaduna followed another mass abduction — and subsequent release — of hundreds of Catholic schoolchildren in neighbouring Niger state late last year. — AFP