- Ishaq Khalid
- BBC News, Abuja
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Nigerian police hunt down other suspect gang members
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Police in Zamfara State, in northwestern Nigeria, announce that they have arrested four people on suspicion of cannibalism and the sale of human organs, a rare phenomenon in the region.
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The suspects are being arrested after detectives found a corpse in an unfinished building, with body parts missing, Ayuba Elkanah, the state police commissioner, told reporters on Thursday.
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The discovery takes place during an investigation into the disappearance of a nine-year-old boy.
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To read especially on BBC Africa:
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The suspects, two men and two teenagers, were arrested last week, Elkanah said, adding that other members of the gang are wanted.
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The police chief says that investigations reveal that the alleged gang leader twice paid the other suspects 500,000 naira (696,318 FCFA) for the human parts.
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Zamfara is one of the states worst hit by a wave of murders and kidnappings for ransom, and authorities are being criticized for their failure to curb the violence.
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Last week, around 200 people were reportedly killed in a series of raids on several villages in the state.
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/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/larazon/F7FYU7M4BNEANG6WHBI6NRKZFI.jpg "From Rodrigo Fresán’s White Whale Hunt to the Hell of the Salem Witch Trials")