Gunmen kidnap two Germans in Nigeria: Authorities
Authorities in Nigeria say unidentified gunmen have abducted two German nationals, who were working at an archaeological site in the African country’s mid-northern state of Kaduna.
Archaeologist Peter Breunig and his associate Johannes Behringer were kidnapped from Jenjela Village on Wednesday morning, said Usman Aliyu, the assistant superintendent of police from the Kaduna Police Command, on Thursday.
He said that Breunig had been leading archaeological excavations by Goethe University in Frankfurt, which is collaborating with Nigeria’s National Commission for Museum and Monuments, and been conducting research there for more than a decade.
Aliyu added that Breunig had been assigned security personnel by the government but had rejected them, preferring the company of locals only.
According to some local residents, two women, believed to be German, were with Breunig when armed men “came wielding guns and machetes and asked the two Germans to follow them into the bush.”
The locals added, however, that the assailants did not kidnap the two women, and that they shot dead two “village hunters” who went after the kidnappers in an attempt to foil the abduction.
No individual or group has yet claimed responsibility for the crime.
SS
