Kurmin Wali, Nigeria – Like most Sundays in Kurmin Wali, the morning of January 18 began with early preparations for church and, later on, shopping at the weekly market.But by 9:30am, it became clear to residents of the village in the Kajuru local government area of Nigeria’s Kaduna State that this Sunday would not be a normal one.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listGunmen known locally as bandits arrived in the village in numbers, armed with AK47 rifles.They broke down doors and ordered people out of their homes and the village’s three churches.They blocked the village exits before taking people and marching dozens into the forest at gunpoint.Some captives were taken from church, while others were forcibly kidnapped as gunmen moved from house to house.In one house, more than 30 members of an extended family were abducted.Jummai Idris, a relative of the family that was taken, remains inconsolable.She was home the day of the attack and did not go out.“When I heard shouting, I took two children and we hid behind a house. That was how they [the bandits] missed us,” she told Al Jazeera.“But I heard every shout, every cry and footstep as they picked up people from our house and surrounding houses,” she added, between sobs.With tears streaming down her face, Idris recounts how she kept calling out the names of her missing family members – men, …
