The incident comes a month after a train service in the north was suspended following the March 2022 attack.

Gunmen armed with assault rifles have abducted 32 people from a railway station in Nigeria’s southern Edo state.

Police said in a statement on Sunday that armed herdsmen attacked Tom Ikimi station at 4pm (15:00 GMT) as commuters waited for a train to Warri, an oil hub in nearby Delta state. The station is approximately 111 km (69 mi) north-east of the state capital, Benin City, and close to the Anambra State border.

Armed group kidnaps 32 people from southern Nigeria railway station

Police said some people present at the station received bullet injuries in the attack.

The attack is the latest example of growing insecurity that has spread to almost every corner of Africa’s most populous country, posing a challenge to the government ahead of February’s presidential election.

Edo state information commissioner Chris Osa Nehikhare said one of the 32 people taken by the kidnappers managed to escape.

“At the moment, security personnel composed of army and police, as well as vigilante network people and hunters are intensifying the search and rescue operation within a reasonable radius to rescue the abducted victims,” ​​he said. We are confident that more victims will be rescued in the coming hours.

The station was closed until further notice by the Nigerian Railways Corporation (NRC) and the Federal Ministry of Transport called the hijacking “utterly barbaric”.

In December, the NRC reopened a rail service linking the capital Abuja to northern Kaduna state, months after attackers blew up the tracks, abducting more than 150 passengers and killing six people.

The last hostage taken in that March attack was not freed until October.

Insecurity is growing in parts of Nigeria, with Boko Haram and its ISIL (ISIS) affiliate branches in the northeast, bandits in the northwest, separatists in the southeast, and farmer-herder conflicts in the central states.