Days after a gang in northern Kaduna state kidnapped almost 300 students, gunmen raided a school in northwest Nigeria’s Sokoto state early on Saturday, according to the school’s owner and a resident. At least 15 pupils were taken captive.
According to school owner Liman Abubakar Bakuso, the gunmen broke into the school and began firing intermittently, waking the pupils and sending them running for safety in the Sokoto community of Gidan Bakuso.
By phone, Bakuso stated, “They managed to kidnap fifteen of my students; the eldest two are fifteen and twenty, but the rest are under thirteen.” She also mentioned that a woman had been taken hostage.
“We are in a state of panic and have been praying hard for their safe release,” he stated to Reuters.
Requests for comment from the police were not answered.
The Islamist group Boko Haram was the first to kidnap kids from schools in Nigeria; ten years ago, it abducted over 200 girls from a school in Chibok, Borno state, sparking international outcry.
However, officials claim that since then, criminal groups without any particular ideology have started using this strategy to demand ransom payments.
Large tracts of land remain unpoliced, and armed gangs are allowed to operate in Nigeria due to the overstretched security forces battling an Islamist insurgency in the northeast.
At least 28 of the pupils who were abducted earlier this week in Kaduna, according to the state governor, were able to free themselves.
Nigeria had seen a pause in large-scale school kidnappings since July 2021, when about 150 kids were taken by armed men. This continued until Thursday’s kidnapping in Kaduna.
MacDonald Dzirutwe wrote the article; Helen Popper edited it.
