Militants kidnap more than 280 students from Nigerian school in raid

Mass kidnappings for ransom common in Africa’s most populous country (File)

Kano, Nigeria:

Gunmen kidnapped more than 280 students during an attack on a school in northwest Nigeria, a teacher and a resident said, in one of the country’s largest kidnappings.

Mass kidnappings for ransom are common in Africa’s most populous country, with criminal gangs targeting schools and universities, particularly in the northwest, although such attacks have declined recently.

Kaduna state local government officials on Thursday confirmed the kidnapping attack at the Kuriga school but did not disclose specific figures as they said they were still counting how many children had been abducted.

Sani Abdullahi, a teacher at GSS Kuriga school in Jikkun district, said on Thursday night that staff and many students managed to escape when gunmen fired into the air.

“Then we started trying to determine the actual number of people who were abducted,” he told local officials who visited the school.

“In GSS Kuriga, 187 children are missing, while in primary school, 125 children are missing, but 25 children have returned.”

“More than 280 people have been kidnapped. We initially thought it was 200, but after careful counting we found that slightly more than 280 children had been kidnapped,” local resident Mohamed Adam told AFP.

Local officials and police have not released any figures on the number of people kidnapped.

“As of now, we do not know the number of children or students who have been abducted,” Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani told reporters at the scene on Thursday.

“No child will be left behind.”

In recent years, criminal gangs known locally as bandits have repeatedly attacked schools in rural areas of Nigeria’s northwestern states.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made reducing insecurity one of his top priorities, but Nigeria’s armed forces are fighting on multiple fronts, including a long-running jihadist insurgency in the country’s northeast.

Last week, more than 100 people went missing after perpetrators carried out mass kidnappings of women and children from refugee camps in the northeast, where people have been displaced by conflict.

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