KANO (AFP) — Gunmen kidnapped more than 50 people in northwest Nigeria in a mass abduction, according to a private conflict monitoring report created for the United Nations and seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday.

"Armed bandits" targeted the village of Sabon Garin Damri in Zamfara state Friday, the report said, the latest attack in a region where residents in rural hinterlands have long suffered from gangs who kidnap for ransom, loot villages and demand taxes.

The report said this was the first "mass capture" incident in the Bakura local government area this year, "the recent trend of mass captures in Zamfara has been concerning," noting "a shift in bandit strategy toward more large-scale attacks in northern Zamfara."

A Zamfara police spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Nigeria's "banditry" crisis originated in conflict over land and water rights between herders and farmers but has morphed into organized crime, with gangs preying on rural communities that have long had little or no government presence.

The conflict is worsening a malnutrition crisis in the northwest as attacks drive people away from their farms, in a situation that has been complicated by climate change and western aid cuts.

Last month, bandits in Zamfara killed 33 people they had kidnapped in February despite receiving a $33,700 ransom, while three babies died in captivity, officials and residents told AFP.