Five armed men kidnapped a
German national and killed a policeman in northern Nigeria, police said on
Monday.
Gunmen on motorcycles
opened fire on a vehicle carrying workers to a construction site run by
construction company Dantata & Sawoe in Kano city, abducting the German
national working for the firm and killing a police escort, said police
spokesman Magaji Musa Majia.
"The attackers killed
one police sergeant attached to the special protection unit on escort duty and
abducted ... a German national working with the company," the spokesman
said. "A manhunt for the abductors is ongoing."
Kidnapping for ransom is common
in Nigeria. Armed criminal groups in the oil-producing south have regularly
kidnapped oil-workers, wealthy people and family members of government
ministers to extract payments.
Kidnapping has increasingly
spread to the north, where cattle rustlers have turned to the practice after a
government crackdown on livestock theft.
North-eastern Nigeria is
also the scene of a long-running war between the military and Boko Haram
militants, who have abducted more than 1,000 children since 2013, according to
UNICEF.
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