On Sunday, Nigerian security forces persisted in their efforts to locate and rescue hundreds of abducted schoolchildren by conducting searches in forests and establishing barricades in the north-west region. However, experts believe that navigating through the vast woodland areas could potentially require several weeks.
More than 280 children aged between seven and 18 were taken from a school in Kuriga on Thursday in one of the biggest mass-abductions in recent months in Nigeria’s turbulent north-west. A further 15 children were taken in another raid on a school in Sokoto on Saturday.
The most recent group kidnappings, carried out by armed criminals, have included two abductions in which schools, colleges, and highways were targeted for large groups of victims, allowing for ransom demands to be made. In a separate event in the state of Borno last week, over 200 individuals, mostly women and children who were displaced due to conflict, were also taken in a similar raid.
No particular organization has taken credit for the kidnapping of the students from the school. It is believed that extremist jihadists, who are engaged in an ongoing rebellion in the northeast, were responsible for the abductions in Borno.
Children who had escaped the kidnappers in Kuriga described their ordeal after being taken from their school in a quiet agrarian village about 60 miles outside the north-west city of Kaduna. At about 8am on Thursday, when the school’s 1,000 students were about to settle into their classes, dozens of armed men in military uniforms rode on motorbikes into the school grounds.
18-year-old Abubakar was one of the students taken to the forest and lashed with horsewhips. However, he was able to flee. Abubakar recounts trekking for hours in extreme heat until they were all drained. He also mentions that the kidnappers separated the girls and boys, with a larger number of girls.
Lawan Yaro, a resident of a village, expressed his diminishing optimism as five of his grandchildren were among those taken against their will. He commented that the constant instability in the area had become the norm, but it had never manifested in such a way before.
According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project, over 3,500 individuals have been kidnapped in Nigeria in the past year, as reported by Associated Press.
According to James Barnett, a researcher on west Africa at the US-based Hudson Institute, the gangs are adjusting their tactics and solidifying their presence in the north-west through the use of extortion.
In April 2014, there was a global response to the actions of Boko Haram insurgents when they abducted over 250 female students from Chibok in Borno state, causing widespread alarm and concern. To this day, a number of the girls have yet to be found.
The military in Nigeria is engaged in battles on different battlefields, including confronting armed lawbreakers in the northern part of the country and a prolonged extremist rebellion in the north-east, resulting in the deaths of 40,000 individuals and the displacement of over 2 million since 2009.
.
This report includes contributions from Agence France-Presse and Associated Press.
Source: theguardian.com
