At least 168 passengers on a Nigerian train that was the target of a terrorist attack last week as it traveled from the Nigerian capital region of Abuja to Kaduna state “are yet to be identified,” Nigerian online newspaper Premium Times reported on Monday.
The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) recently said that “its manifesto showed that 362 passengers were on board” the train in question, which was derailed by unidentified terrorists on March 28.
“However, many Nigerians believe in it [passenger] the numbers are much higher due to fraud and manipulation at the stations,” the Premium Times noted of the NRC’s allegedly corrupt management of the state railway.
The NRC said on April 3 it had “confirmed the safety of 14 additional passengers on board the train, bringing the total number of safe passengers to 186”.
“Of the remaining 176 passengers, eight have been confirmed dead, while the families of 22 passengers have officially declared them missing. This indicates that a total of 168 passengers remain unaccounted for, including the 22 who have been reported missing by their families.
“It is not yet clear whether all 168 were abducted by the attackers or simply went unreported a week after the incident,” the online publication reads.
Nigeria This day The newspaper reported on March 29 that the Abuja-Kaduna railway was carrying 970 passengers at the time of the March 28 attack.
A group of unidentified terrorists “used explosives to blow up the rails first before opening fire on the train,” NRC chief Fidet Okhiria told reporters on March 29, as quoted by the Associated Press (AP).
“Many people are also feared to have been kidnapped,” he said at the time.
“They bombed the tracks and started exchanging fires with security on the train,” a survivor of the attack named Abdulwadud Ahmad told the AP on March 29. “They overwhelmed security, then got on the train and kidnapped many people. ”
Nigeria’s access reef last week was one of three major terrorist incidents that occurred in the 48-hour period from March 26-28. Unidentified attackers targeted the major civilian railway line between Abuja and the northern city of Kaduna on March 28, just two days after a group of terrorists attacked Kaduna airport on March 26, killing one person and injuring several others. Another group of militants raided a Christian village in the Munya region of Niger state on March 27 and then kidnapped the local priest.
Nigeria has suffered regular terrorist attacks for several years, most of which are attributed to Boko Haram. The jihadist terrorist group known as Boko Haram settled in north-eastern Nigeria around 2009 and soon made international headlines for carrying out mass kidnappings and massacres. The organization has grown stronger over the past two years, with reports suggesting that Boko Haram has drawn closer to Abuja, Nigeria’s central state capital, in recent months.
Reports from local Nigerian news outlets on April 4 indicated that Nigeria’s terror frenzy last week continued unabated in the days that followed.
“Twelve members of the Irigwe ethnic group were reportedly killed, while 19 cattle belonging to Fulani herdsmen were killed on Saturday night [April 2] shot dead in separate attacks in Bassa Municipality villages [Nigeria’s] Plateau State”, the Daily trust reported on Monday.
‘Suspected gunmen, Sunday night [April 3]invaded the town of Tsafe, the headquarters of the Municipality of Tsafe Municipality in Zamfara State, killing many people,” Premium Times reported on April 4.
