Abuja, Nigeria:
Ten years after the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirl, Nigeria is facing a resurgence of mass kidnappings.
The anniversary of Boko Haram’s infamous attack follows two mass kidnappings, one in the same northeastern state as Chibok and the other in the northwest state of Kaduna, where more than 130 people Children were kidnapped from school.
As the country grapples with security challenges on multiple fronts, hostage-taking has grown into a nationwide industry and a favorite tactic of bandit gangs and jihadists.
What’s the background?
Kidnappers targeted oil workers in the Niger Delta in the early 2000s, but the problem escalated in 2009 after a jihadist insurgency broke out in the northeast.
The kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok on April 14, 2014 made headlines around the world. Nearly 100 prisoners are still missing.
Boko Haram and its rival Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) continue to carry out kidnappings on a regular basis.
But with the rise of heavily armed bandit gangs, the northwest has become the region with the worst kidnapping incidents.
The gangs have targeted schools and universities in the past, but there had been a lull in such attacks recently before the mass kidnappings in Kaduna state.
Kidnapping gangs also operate across the country, hunting everyone from schoolchildren to traditional monarch families.
Some experts believe the country’s economic crisis is leading to an increase in kidnappings as desperate Nigerians turn to crime for income.
“It’s all about lack of money and poverty,” said Emeka Okoro, an analyst at Nigerian risk consultancy SBM Intelligence.
“Kidnapping is lucrative – large sums of money have been paid to rescue schoolchildren in the past.”
How big is the problem?
Data on kidnappings are unreliable due to under-reporting and the fact that daily kidnappings in Nigeria rarely attract global attention.
The SBM said 4,777 abductions had been recorded since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took office in May last year.
According to the charity Save the Children, more than 1,680 students were abducted from Nigerian schools from the beginning of 2014 to the end of 2022.
What did the authorities do?
In 2022, a law was introduced banning money from kidnappers, and officials denied paying ransoms to secure victims’ release.
Many families say they lack confidence in authorities and feel they have no choice, often pooling their savings to meet the kidnappers’ demands.
Authorities use methods such as registering mobile phone SIM cards to help track kidnappers.
Police have deployed anti-kidnapping units, but the forest where the gang is hiding is difficult to access and control.
In the northwest, authorities have tried to negotiate with bandits, striking amnesty deals and deploying vigilante groups.
But they have had little success, and critics say the kidnapping crisis has spiraled out of control.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
