Bwari kidnapping: Nigeria police secure release of sisters taken from Abuja
ABUJA - Nigerian police say they have rescued five sisters who were held hostage after being kidnapped in the country's capital.
The girls were freed in a joint police-army operation in a forest in northern Nigeria on Saturday night.
They were taken from their home in Abuja earliera this month, along with another sister who was later killed.
The kidnappers had demanded a ransom for their release, but the statement made no mention of one being paid.
Nigerian police said the girls had been reunited with their family following the operation, which took place near the Kajuru forest in Kaduna State at around 23:30 hours on Saturday.
The six sisters, aged from the early teens to 23, were taken hostage alongside their father, Mansoor Al-Kadriyar, on January 2 at the family home in Bwari, a suburb of Abuja.
Witnesses said the girls' uncle ran to find help but was ambushed and killed, as were three police officers.
The kidnappers released Mansoor on the condition he raise a large ransom, but his 21-yearold daughter, Nabeeha, a final year university student, was then killed as a warning, according to a family member who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity.
Kidnapping has become rife in Nigeria, with hundreds of people abducted in recent years, largely by criminal gangs who see it as an easy way to make money. It has been particularly bad in the north-west of the country.
The case of the Al-Kadriyar sisters prompted widespread anger in the country, with many arguing that the kidnapping emergency has continued despite government promises to bring it to an end.