Armed bandits in north-west Nigeria abducted dozens of villagers whom they invited to a meeting about potential peace negotiations, authorities and residents said on Monday, highlighting the region’s worsening security.

According to local police, 39 people were seized on Sunday during a meeting in the forest near Magamin Diddi village in the Maradun municipality of north-west Zamfara state. But some residents and officials believe the number of those abducted could be as high as 50.

It is believed the victims were meeting the relatives of a bandit leader in the hope of bringing peace and easing restrictions imposed on the community.

“While the meeting was ongoing, the bandit kingpin allegedly arrived at the location with members of his gang and forcefully abducted 39 members of the group to an unknown destination,” a police spokesperson, Yazid Abubakar, said in a statement on Monday.

The chair of the Maradun local government told a local newspaper that authorities in the state were not in support of reconciliation with bandits.

According to the chair, the bandits had recently blocked all roads leading to the community market to show their anger over the persistent killing of their members by security operatives.

He questioned why the community chose to meet the aggrieved bandits, who were seeking an opportunity to retaliate.

Zamfara is at the centre of a long-running security crisis in which armed groups, locally referred to as bandits, carry out mass kidnappings, killings and village raids. The violence has disrupted farming and displaced thousands. Individual negotiations with kidnappers have occurred to gain access to farmland or secure the release of abductees despite authorities warning against it.

Security forces have deployed personnel and intelligence assets to locate the victims, the police statement said. Several individuals were reported by local people to have been released to convey the kidnappers’ ransom demands to the village.

Bashar Aliyu, a resident of Magamin Diddi, said the armed group was demanding 125m naira (£69,000) for the release of those abducted.

Abubakar said security operatives were working to rescue the captives and had assured residents that every effort was being made to ensure the victims were rescued unharmed and the perpetrators were brought to justice.