Hostages being used as ‘shields’

Dozens of passengers kidnapped five weeks ago from a train near Nigeria’s capital are being used as human shields by their abductors, President Muhammadu Buhari said. More than 100 travellers were kidnapped in late March in Nigeria’s troubled northern region when a passenger train was halted by an explosion and then attacked by gunmen who killed eight people on board. The kidnappers “are using civilians as human shields, thereby making it difficult to confront them directly,” Buhari said.