Nigeria searches for hundreds of kidnapped children : NPR

JOHANNESBURG — Nigerian safety forces are trying to find greater than 200 youngsters kidnapped from their faculty by gunmen on bikes Thursday, within the newest mass kidnapping to hit Nigeria.

Officers and witnesses have given various figures of the variety of college students taken from the college in Kuriga, a city in northwestern Nigeria, with between 200 and 300 youngsters reported to be lacking, a few of them as younger as 8 years previous.

It was the second such abduction in Nigeria in per week, after round one other 200 individuals — primarily ladies and youngsters — have been kidnapped by militants in Borno state within the nation’s northeast.

If the upper complete this week is confirmed, it may surpass the mass abduction in 2014 when Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from their dormitory within the village of Chibok.

The West African nation has been struggling to include the kidnapping epidemic for plenty of years now. Greater than 3,600 individuals have been kidnapped between July 2022 and June 2023, in line with Nigeria primarily based SBM Intelligence group. However the precise quantity might be far increased, as many individuals don’t report kidnappings for worry of reprisals.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who was elected final 12 months after working a marketing campaign promising to finish insecurity and kidnapping in Nigeria, condemned this week’s two abductions in an announcement Friday.

“The president directs safety and intelligence companies to right away rescue the victims and be sure that justice is served towards the perpetrators of those abominable acts,” the assertion mentioned.

Uba Sani, the governor of Kaduna state, which incorporates Kuriga, mentioned one particular person had been killed in the course of the raid on the college on Thursday.

Whereas no group has claimed accountability for the raid, prison gangs are often answerable for kidnappings within the northwest, consultants say. Islamist group Boko Haram, operates primarily within the northeast.

The Chibok kidnappings sparked a worldwide outcry and the #BringBackOurGirls marketing campaign. Nevertheless, whereas some have since been launched, many others stay in captivity because the tenth anniversary of the April 2014 abductions approaches.

Nigeria, with considered one of Africa’s largest economies and its greatest inhabitants, with massive Christian and Muslim communities, has been beset by unrest for years. The sectarian group Boko Haram, which has been taken to loosely imply “schooling is sinful,” has used kidnapped youngsters as troopers and intercourse slaves. There’s additionally an Islamic State-aligned breakaway.

Then, within the northwest and central elements of the nation, there are common clashes between nomadic cattle herders — primarily Muslim — and principally Christian farming communities.

After which there are the prison gangs, who kidnap indiscriminately, no matter revenue, in a rustic the place abductions have grow to be an business, kidnappers have grown extra brazen and the place crowdfunding for ransoms has grow to be frequent. It isn’t uncommon for kidnappers to carry on to the victims as soon as the ransom has been paid.

One infamous case not too long ago gripped the nation, after the horrific homicide of considered one of six kidnapped sisters near Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. The remaining sisters have been ultimately rescued in a police raid, a uncommon finish to a brutal episode. However just like the mass kidnappings of the previous week, the case introduced the unraveling safety scenario beneath an unwelcome highlight as soon as once more.

Oluwole Ojewale, a Nigeria researcher with the South Africa-based Institute for Safety Research, advised NPR Tinubu’s social gathering had failed within the final 9 years by way of ending kidnappings for ransom.

“It is beneath their watch that this type of criminality known as banditry really first began and that … the northwest got here beneath the grip of great insecurity,” he mentioned.

He defined the distinction between the varied teams concerned in kidnapping for profitable ransoms.

“I believe the distinctive distinction is that the place Boko Haram is ideologically pushed, bandits are only a group of free criminals,” he mentioned. “However in addition they have some type of commonality within the type of crimes that they are finishing up and I believe {that a} frequent denominator is that this kidnapping for ransom.”

Requested whether or not a lot has modified because the Chibok women kidnapping a decade in the past, Ojewale famous the federal government has had some success in that Boko Haram would not management as a lot territory because it as soon as did, however he mentioned, typically “not a lot has modified.”

“Insecurity within the nation has been on the rise, assaults have been on the rise,” he mentioned.