Tag Archives: kidnapping

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | An elderly British couple have been kidnapped in South Africa, police said Thursday, amid reports they were abducted by extremists suspected to have links to the Islamic State group. The British foreign office confirmed that a pair of Britons had been kidnapped and warned …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | Nigerian police on Tuesday briefly detained activists calling for the release of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram jihadists nearly four years ago, campaigners said. Members of the #BringBackOurGirls advocacy group were taken into custody as they held their daily demonstration in the capital, …

Kano, Nigeria | AFP | Islamist militants Boko Haram on Monday released a new video purporting to show at least 14 of the Chibok schoolgirls whose mass kidnapping nearly four years ago became a symbol of NIgeria’s brutal conflict. But despite a concerted global campaign for their release, and talks between …

Goma, DR Congo | AFP | Valerie pulls a pair of blue shorts and a small white shirt out of a plastic bag. The shirt is stained with blood. It’s the school uniform of her eight-year-old son Nathanael, who was kidnapped on his way to class in Goma in the …

Rome, Italy | AFP | An Italian priest has been kidnapped by gunmen in southern Nigeria, church officials in both countries have said. Maurizio Pallu was snatched on Thursday in broad daylight by armed men just outside of Benin City, Italian media reports said. “Pope Francis has been informed about …

Rome, Italy | AFP | An Indian priest kidnapped last year during a deadly attack by Islamist militants in Yemen thanked on Saturday all those involved in his release, and even had a kind word for his abductors for not harming him. “I thank in the name of the Lord God …

Port Harcourt, Nigeria | AFP | Gunmen kidnapped 19 bus passengers near Nigeria’s southern oil hub, Port Harcourt, police said on Friday, in the latest of a series of abductions in recent weeks. Rivers state police spokesman Nnamdi Omoni said the attack happened on Thursday and that police had so far …

Bunia, DR Congo | AFP |  Eleven park wardens and a US journalist in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo are missing amid signs they were kidnapped by a local militia, sources said Saturday. “Eleven guards and an American journalist working for the Okapi Wildlife Reserve (RFO) were abducted on Friday …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP |  There were emotional scenes Saturday as 82 kidnapped Chibok girls released by Boko Haram Islamists earlier this month were reunited with their parents. At the reunion held in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja, fathers gripped their daughters in tight hugs, while mothers shrieked with joy, wiping …

Kano, Nigeria | AFP |  Boko Haram late on Friday released a video claiming to show the Chibok schoolgirls who refused to be rescued as part of a recent swap deal with the Nigerian government. In the three-minute video, a woman who claims to be Maida Yakubu, one of the …