Nigerian police find bones of 28 alleged kidnapping victims

Sfollowing the command of the police of the state of Abia, were found “28 skulls and other human bones that are supposed to belong to kidnapping victims”, still undecided when the victims were killed.

The operations took place in refuges, located in the forests of Abiha.

Nigerian security forces are under strong pressure in a country where vast forest areas serve as refuge for criminals and armed groups.

In Nigeria, the amount of ransoms paid following abductions amounted to around $6 million (about USD 5.2 million) between July 2025 and June 2026, according to consulting company SBM Intelligence, based in the city of Lagos.

Kidnapping has become a key source of income for criminal groups in Africa’s most populous country, in particular for extremists and armed gangs known as “bandits”.

Although motivated by financial gains and not by an ideology, these groups collaborate with terrorist networks from the north-east of the African country.

The southeast of the country, considered less violent, also faces the presence of organized criminal groups and separatist movements.

The centre of Nigeria is also the scene of deadly clashes over land between livestock farmers and farmers, and some fear that this violence will spread to the southeast of the country, where a low-intensity separatist conflict already mobilizes security forces.

During a previous conflict in the Niger Delta, local and foreign workers were kidnapped in response to environmental degradation and lack of economic development, despite the wealth of this region in fossil fuels.