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Gunmen kidnap dozens from school in central Nigeria
KANO, Nigeria, Feb 17, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Gunmen from a suspected
criminal gang stormed a school in central Nigeria on Wednesday,
killing one student and kidnapping dozens of other pupils, teachers
and relatives, the local government said, in the country’s latest mass
abduction.
President Muhammadu Buhari ordered security forces to coordinate a
rescue operation, his office said, after gunmen in military uniforms
raided the Government Science College in the town of Kagara in Niger
state.
Details about the kidnapping were still emerging and a new tally
came after initial reports from a government official and a security
source that hundreds of students were snatched from the school, where
they were staying in dormitories.
“They kidnapped 42 people from the school. They took away 27
students, along with three teachers. One student was killed. They also
kidnapped 12 family members of the teachers,” Muhammad Sani Idris,
spokesman for Niger state’s government, told AFP by phone.
He said 650 students had been in the school when it was attacked at
2:00 am (0100 GMT) on Wednesday.
Heavily-armed gangs known locally as “bandits” in northwest and
central Nigeria have stepped up attacks in recent years, kidnapping
for ransom, raping and pillaging.
Buhari condemned the abduction and ordered security forces to
coordinate an operation to rescue the students.
“The president has directed the armed forces and police to ensure
immediate and safe return of all the captives,” spokesman Garba Shehu
said in a statement without giving details on the number of missing.
Only two months ago, more than 300 students were kidnapped from a
school in Kankara in nearby Katsina, Buhari’s home state, while the
president was visiting the region.
The boys were later released after negotiations with government
officials, but the incident sparked global outrage.
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“Attacks on schools and abductions of children are war crimes,”
Amnesty International reacted in a statement on Wednesday.
“Those found to be responsible of the abduction must be brought to
justice,” said the rights group’s director in Nigeria, Osai Ojigho.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF also condemned the attack and called
for the students’ release.
“Children should feel safe at home and at school at all times — and
parents should not need to worry for the safety of their children when
they send them off to school in the morning,” UNICEF’s Nigeria
representative Peter Hawkins said.
On Wednesday, Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani Bello ordered
boarding schools in four areas to shut down until further notice.
“Government at all levels should also ensure that our schools are
henceforth protected against heartless criminals who have apparently
identified them as soft targets,” Nigeria’s Senate President Ahmad
Lawan said.
– Tracking bandits –
Kidnap gangs in Nigeria’s northwest and central states are just one
challenge in Africa’s most populous country, where security forces
face ethnic clashes, jihadists in the northeast and piracy in the
south.
The government official said earlier that some students escaped and
a security source said a headcount had been underway to confirm how
many were abducted.
Troops with air support were tracking the bandits for a possible
rescue operation, the source said.
A statement from the Senate said “security agencies were able to
detect the coordinates of the area the students were taken to”.
The region is increasingly a hub for criminal gangs who raid
villages, killing and abducting residents after looting and torching
homes.
Bandits are known to hide in camps in Rugu forest, which straddles
Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states. Despite the deployment of
troops, deadly attacks persist.
The gangs are largely driven by financial motives and have no known
ideological leanings.
But there is growing concern they are being infiltrated by jihadists
from the northeast who are waging a decade-old insurgency to establish
an Islamic state.
The latest kidnapping incident comes three years after 111
schoolgirls were snatched by jihadists in Dapchi and nearly seven
years after 276 girls were taken from Chibok in a raid that shocked
the world.
“Nigeria has to declare a state of emergency on insecurity,” said
Idayat Hassan, director of the Abuja-based Centre for Democracy and
Development think tank.
“The government must secure the schools and urgently too, or else
(the) Chibok, Dapchi and Kankara school raids will encourage others to
do worse.”
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