More than 250 to 280 students were kidnapped from their elementary school in the north-western region of Nigeria early on the morning of 7th March (Thursday) by unknown assailants on motorcycles in one of the biggest mass kidnappings for the second time in a week in the Kaduna state. In the latest incident in Kuriga town, numerous armed individuals on motorbikes passed by the school as the students were in the assembly ground at approximately 08:30 (7:30 GMT), according to a witness who added that a teacher and the pupils, who ranged in age from eight to fifteen, were taken away.
The abduction occurred days after reports of numerous women and children being feared kidnapped by the Boko Haram Islamist group while they were gathering firewood in northeastern Nigeria.
Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, dispatched forces to rescue the youngsters. Heavily armed criminal gangs on motorbikes target people in villages, schools, and along highways in the hopes of receiving ransom payments. He declared, “I have received briefing from security chiefs on the two incidents, and I am confident that the victims will be rescued,” in a statement ordering armed forces to track down the kidnappers and added, “Nothing else is acceptable to me and the waiting family members of these abducted citizens. Justice will be decisively administered.”
Officials from Kaduna’s local government confirmed the kidnapping at Kuriga school were still determining the exact number of pupils taken hostage and could not provide an exact count. Locals reported that during the attack, at least one person was shot and killed.
Teachers at the GSS Kuriga school in the Chikun district, Sani Abdullahi, stated that when the gunmen known as bandits in the area attacked and opened fire in the air, several pupils and staff fled from there. He informed the local authorities that 187 students had been abducted from the junior high school and an additional 100 students from the elementary courses. In addition, three locals reported that 200–280 instructors and children had been kidnapped.
Musa Mohammed, a resident revealed, “Early in the morning we heard gunshots from bandits. Before we knew it they had gathered up the children. We are pleading to the government, all of us are pleading, they should please help us with security.”
Governor of Kaduna state, which encompasses Kuriga, Uba Sani, corroborated the mass kidnapping. He disclosed that 25 of the 187 pupils who disappeared from a secondary school and 125 from a local primary school had since returned. One student, who was being treated in a hospital after being shot by the gunman and was believed to be 14 years old, has subsequently passed away.
President Bola Tinubu claimed he was “confident that the victims will be rescued.” The President expressed his condolences to the families of those abducted and stated that he has “directed security and intelligence agencies to immediately rescue the victims and ensure that justice is served against the perpetrators of these abominable acts.”
Locals attempted to save the kids, but the shooters thwarted them and one person was killed in the gunfight, according to a teacher who was able to get away. Zakariyya Nasiru, whose sister and brother were kidnapped complained that the family had trouble falling asleep on Thursday night. “All of us couldn’t sleep as we kept thinking about them. We are here praying for their safe return.” He claimed that a child who had escaped the previous evening had returned with horrifying tales of their living circumstances, including starvation.
It is believed that among those abducted are children from almost every family in the community. An effort has been made by the armed forces to locate them. “No child will be left behind,” the governor declared. A local school principal was assassinated by bandits in January and his widow was taken captive.
Notably, Islamic terrorists abducted dozens of people near a camp for internally displaced people in northeast Nigeria while gathering firewood. Local media outlets reported that a large group of young girls and some boys were surrounded by armed assailants who then headed back into the surrounding bushland with their captives. The crime was reportedly committed by Ansaru, a breakaway faction of jihadi outfit Boko Haram. Almost 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in Borno state were abducted by them in 2014. Surrounding territories are under Ansaru’s control.
Interestingly, no organization has claimed responsibility for either of the kidnappings. It is believed that criminal groups attempting to profit from ransoms are responsible for the majority of kidnaps in northwest Nigeria, particularly Kaduna state.
Conflicting reports have surfaced regarding the time and number of victims of the mass kidnapping that terrorists carried out last week in Borno, targeting women and children in camps for those displaced by violence. Over 100 people are currently listed as missing.
A contentious law that criminalizes ransom payments was passed in 2022 to stop Nigeria’s rapidly expanding and profitable kidnapping business. Although there is a minimum 15-year jail penalty, no one has ever been arrested for it. The family of a group of sisters who were abducted in Abuja earlier this year rejected a police claim that the girls had been freed by security forces, claiming they were forced to pay the ransom.
Furthermore, in September 2021, gunmen kidnapped 30 people from a university in Zamfara State, including 24 female students. A similar occurrence took place in February 2021 in the Zamfara town of Jangebe, when around 300 students were abducted from a boarding school for girls.
The armed forces of Nigeria are fighting on multiple fronts, such as the persistent jihadist insurgency in the northeast that has resulted in over two million displacements and 40,000 fatalities since 2009. They are also fighting armed criminals in the northwest.
