abducted

The kidnapped man is a pilot for an evangelical organisation, a diplomatic source says.

A US missionary working for an evangelical Christian organisation has been kidnapped in Niger’s capital Niamey, the US State Department has said, in the latest kidnapping of a foreign national in the country.

The US State Department confirmed the abduction to the AFP news agency on Wednesday, saying its embassy in Niamey was doing what it could to secure the man’s safe release.

The victim, a man in his 50s, was seized on Tuesday night and was “already en route for the border with Mali”, a diplomatic source told AFP.

The Reuters news agency, citing another diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity, said the man was a pilot for the evangelical organisation Serving in Mission (SIM).

SIM describes itself on its website as a “global mission family of more than 4,000 people, serving in more than 70 countries”, whose focus is on “taking the gospel to places where there are no, or very few, Christians”.

The diplomat said the victim was abducted by three unidentified men in Niamey’s Plateau neighbourhood as he was heading for the airport. The group then headed for Niger’s western Tillaberi region, where armed fighters linked to ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda are known to operate.

In a post on X, Wamaps, a collective of journalists in West Africa, said the abducted man had been working in Niger since 2010, and had been kidnapped just a few streets away from the presidential palace in central Niamey. It said no group had yet claimed responsibility for the kidnapping or claimed a ransom.

String of kidnappings

The abduction is the latest in a spate of kidnappings this year in Niger, a country that has been battling armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL for years. Security threats ramped up after the military toppled the country’s democratically elected government in July 2023.

In April, 67-year-old Swiss woman Claudia Abbt was kidnapped in the northern city of Agadez, three months after the abduction of Austrian Eva Gretzmacher, 73, in the same city. Neither has been released.

ISIL was considered responsible for the kidnappings, carried out by local criminal groups on its behalf, AFP reported, citing observers of armed groups in the region.

According to Wamaps, other abductions of foreign nationals this year have included four Moroccan truck drivers in January, two Chinese petroleum company workers in February, and five Indian power company technicians in April.

Niger is one of several West African countries battling armed conflict that has spread from Mali and Burkina Faso over the past 12 years, killing thousands of people and uprooting millions.

Following Niger’s 2023 military coup, US and French forces that had been involved in the fight against armed violence in the region were expelled from Niger, as the country turned to Russian mercenaries in an effort to maintain stability.

In May, General Michael Langley, the former head of the US Africa Command, said that the withdrawal had removed the US military’s “ability to monitor these terrorist groups closely, but [we] continue to liaison with partners to provide what support we can”.

Aug. 31 (UPI) — At least 11 United Nations employees in Yemen were abducted by Houthi-controlled authorities Sunday after they raided World Food Program facilities in the capital Sanaa.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced and condemned the abduction in a statement that also demanded the “immediate and unconditional release” of those detained.

The U.N.’s WFP provides life-saving food assistance to children and mothers in a country considered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises due to the nearly 12-year civil war between the Houthi militants and the internationally recognized Yemeni government.

The raid followed Israeli airstrikes on Houthi-controlled Sanaa on Friday, which killed its prime minister, Ahmed al-Rawai, along with several other ministers.

Sunday’s arrests increases the number of U.N. workers detained by the Houthis to 23, some whom have been in captivity since 2021 and 2023, Hans Grundberg, U.N. special envoy for Yemen, said in a separate statement.

“The work of U.N. personnel is designed and conducted under the principles of neutrality, impartiality, independence and humanity,” Grundberg said.

“These arrests violate the fundamental obligation to respect and protect their safety, dignity and ability to carry out their essential work in Yemen.”

Both Guterres and Grundberg confirmed that U.N. property had been confiscated by the Houthis during their Sunday raid, though exactly what taken was not detailed.

Both officials also demanded that the Iran-backed Houthis unconditionally release all U.N. personnel and staff from national and international NGOs, civil society organizations and diplomatic missions who have been taken over the years.

“The personnel of the U.N. and its partners must never be targeted, arrested or detained while carrying out their duties for the U.N.,” Guterres said.

“The safety and security of U.N. personnel and property as well as the inviolability of U.N. premises must be guaranteed at all times.”

Many women and children were reportedly abducted in the deadly attack in northwestern Zamfara State.

At least nine people have been reported killed and many abducted following an attack in Nigeria’s northwest, residents and local officials said, amid increasing violence against farmers by what have been described as “bandit” gangs.

The deadly attack on Friday took place in Zamfara state, the epicentre of attacks by heavily armed men known locally as bandits who have been wreaking havoc across Nigeria’s northwest in recent years, kidnapping thousands, killing hundreds and making it unsafe to travel by road.

Hamisu Faru, a local lawmaker, confirmed the attack to the Reuters news agency, saying the assailants took “no fewer than 100 people, including women and children”.

“As I’m speaking to you right now, they are searching house-to-house, abducting people,” Faru said by phone.

Yahaya Yari Abubakar, political administrator of Talata Mafara district, where the attack was carried out, told the AFP news agency that nine people were killed in total and at least 15 local people were abducted.

Abu Zaki, a resident of the district’s Jangebe village, said the victims included the head of the village’s vigilante self-defence group and his five colleagues, along with three residents.

“Everybody is now afraid of going to the farm for fear of being attacked,” said another resident, Bello Ahmadu, who corroborated the reported death toll.

Jangebe village was the scene in 2021 of the mass abduction of almost 300 female students from a boarding school. The girls were freed days later after authorities made a ransom payment.

Another resident in the area, Mohammed Usman, told Reuters that the attackers laid siege to the town for nearly two hours before taking their captives. Thousands of residents have now fled the village, he said.

Zamfara police did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

Nigeria’s bandits maintain camps in a huge forest straddling Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states, in unrest that has evolved from clashes between herders and farmers over land and resources into a broader conflict fuelled by arms trafficking.

Zamfara’s state government has recruited vigilantes and armed militias to assist the military in fighting the bandits.

Last month, vigilantes, with the aid of Nigeria’s secret police, killed about 100 people when they raided the enclave of a gang kingpin in the state’s Shinkafi district, according to officials.

June 25 (UPI) — The United States is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information locating Mahmood Shah Habibi, an Afghan American businessman who was abducted in Afghanistan nearly three years ago.

The reward from the U.S. State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program was announced Tuesday by department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce, who said during a regular press briefing, “We have determined that he has been disappeared, and that he has not been heard from.”

According to a release from the FBI in August, Habibi, a contractor for Kabul-based telecommunications company Asia Consultancy Group, and his driver were kidnapped from their vehicle near his home in the Afghan capital on Aug. 10, 2022.

It is believed that he was taken by the Taliban along with 29 other employees of his company, all of whom, except for Habibi, have since been released.

“He has not been heard from since his initial arrest, and the Taliban has yet to provide any information regarding his whereabouts or condition,” the State Department said in a statement.

Bruce said they are hoping the $5 million reward will entice someone to come forward.

“It makes a difference in everyone’s lives that we might get some information about him,” she said.

The U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021. In its absence, the Taliban regained control of the Middle Eastern country.

Relatives of five members of the band Fugitivo, aged between 20 and 40, received ransom demands after their abduction.

Drug cartel members are suspected of murdering five Mexican band members, who went missing after being hired to perform a concert in a crime-ridden city in the northeast of the country.

The Diario de Mexico newspaper said on Thursday that the bodies of the five musicians had been discovered after they went missing on Sunday, and nine suspects were arrested in connection with their abduction and killing.

According to authorities, the nine suspects are part of the “Los Metros” faction of the Gulf Cartel, which operates in the city of Reynosa, in Tamaulipas state, near the United States border.

“Law enforcement arrested nine individuals considered likely responsible for the events. They are known to be members of a criminal cell of the Gulf Cartel,” Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios told a news conference.

Tamaulipas is considered one of Mexico’s most dangerous states due to the presence of cartel members involved in drug and migrant trafficking, as well as other crimes, including extortion.

The announcement of the arrests came hours after officials said five bodies had been found in the search for the men, who were members of a local band called Fugitivo.

The musicians were hired to put on a concert on Sunday but arrived to find that the location of their proposed performance was a vacant lot, according to family members who had held a protest urging the authorities to act.

Relatives had reported receiving ransom demands for the musicians, who were aged between 20 and 40 years old.

Mexican musicians have been targeted previously by cartel members amid rivalry, as some receive payment to compose and perform songs that glorify the exploits of gang leaders.

Investigators used video surveillance footage and mobile phone tracking to establish the musicians’ last movements, Barrios said.

Nine firearms and two vehicles were seized, he said.

More than 480,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence and organised crime, and about 120,000 people have gone missing, in Mexico.