NEW DELHI: Unidentified gunmen on Friday kidnapped over 200 college students from a faculty in Nigeria, making it one of many largest mass abductions within the nation. Whereas native authorities officers in Kaduna State have confirmed the kidnapping at Kuriga faculty, they’re nonetheless working to find out the precise variety of youngsters who’ve been kidnapped. One individual misplaced their life through the assault.Sani Abdullahi, a trainer at GSS Kuriga faculty, acknowledged that many college students and workers managed to flee when the gunmen stormed the constructing, firing gunshots within the air. Nevertheless, there are nonetheless many youngsters unaccounted for.The precise variety of kidnapped youngsters and college students is but to be confirmed by native officers and police. It’s not unusual for preliminary figures to be revised as individuals who fled the assault return house. Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani assured the general public that no little one can be left behind and that efforts are underway to establish the true extent of the kidnapping.Amidst widespread condemnation of the abductions in Kaduna, Amnesty Worldwide emphasised the significance of faculties being secure areas for youngsters. The rights group urged the Nigerian authorities to take instant motion to forestall additional assaults on instructional establishments and safeguard the lives and proper to training of the nation’s youth.The occasion highlights the prevalent concern of kidnappings for ransom in Africa’s most populous nation. Legal gangs, armed to the tooth, have beforehand focused instructional establishments, particularly within the northwest area. Sadly, mass abductions have turn into a recurring nightmare in Nigeria, notably within the northwest and central areas. Lately, a whole lot of schoolchildren and faculty college students have fallen sufferer to such heinous acts. Most of them are finally launched after paying a hefty ransom, following weeks and even months of captivity in hidden forest camps.Final week, over 100 people went lacking after militants kidnapped girls and youngsters in a camp for these displaced by the battle within the northeast. Moreover, in September 2021, gunmen kidnapped 30 people, together with 24 feminine college students, from a college in Zamfara State. The city of Jangebe in Zamfara additionally witnessed an analogous incident in February 2021, when greater than 300 college students have been kidnapped from a women’ boarding faculty.Nigeria’s armed forces are presently engaged in a number of battles, together with the continued combat in opposition to a jihadist insurgency within the northeast.
