At least 2,000 people from Dekera district in Nigeria’s Niger State have fled into neighbouring Benin Republic following last Friday’s attacks in which hundreds of people were abducted during raids on mosques in the area, Amnesty International has said.
The human rights organisation also called on President Bola Tinubu and the Federal Government to urgently address what it described as the country’s “horrifying spate of abductions” targeting rural communities in northern Nigeria.
According to Amnesty International, at least 1,100 people were abducted across the country within three months, between January and April 2026.
The organisation said victims of abduction are frequently subjected to severe human rights abuses while in captivity.
“Those abducted are frequently subjected to torture, starvation, amputation, rape, and forced to witness or commit atrocities,” Amnesty International said.
It added that many of the communities affected by the growing wave of kidnappings have endured repeated attacks by gunmen over several years.
Amnesty International further warned that available estimates of the number of people abducted by gunmen and other armed groups across Nigeria vary widely and may not reflect the true scale of the crisis.
“Estimates of the number of abductions by gunmen and armed groups across Nigeria vary and some of the commonly cited figures vastly understate the scale of the problem,” the organisation said.
The rights group urged the Nigerian authorities to take urgent and effective measures to protect rural communities and halt the escalating wave of mass abductions.
