Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday ordered security forces to free dozens of people abducted Friday in the country's west.

"I have directed the Armed Forces, the Nigeria Police Force, the Department of State Services, and all relevant security and intelligence agencies to launch a coordinated rescue operation immediately for the victims of the recent mass abduction in Niger State," he said on X.

Armed suspects abducted and killed dozens of people in an attack during Friday prayers in the villages of Dikera and Binzi. No official toll has yet been released.

In a video circulating on social media, several hundred people, many of them women and children, were seen gathered in a forest and presented as hostages taken from Dikera. 

No ransom demand was mentioned.

Nigeria has been battling a militia insurgency for 17 years. The insurgency is concentrated in the northeast, but Friday's attack struck in a central western zone near the Benin border.