In the second mass kidnapping in as many days in Nigeria, gunmen stormed a school in the northwest, leaving hundreds of students missing.
While they were calculating the number of children abducted, local government representatives in Kaduna state acknowledged the kidnappings from Kuriga school on Thursday but did not provide any numbers.
According to his office, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu sent orders to intelligence and security services on Friday to “immediately rescue the victims and ensure that justice is served against the perpetrators of these abominable acts.”
I have received briefings from security chiefs on the two incidents in Borno and Kaduna, and I am confident that the victims will be rescued. Nothing else is acceptable to me and the waiting family members of these abducted citizens. Justice will be decisively administered.
To…
— Bola Ahmed Tinubu (@officialABAT) March 8, 2024
“At present, we are unable to determine the exact number of children or students who have been abducted,” Kaduna state governor Uba Sani said to media on Thursday in Kuriga. “We won’t leave any child behind.”
Kuriga local councilor Idris Maiallura claimed to have visited the school and that the gunmen had first taken 100 elementary school students before releasing them and letting some escape.
Parents and locals attributed the kidnappings to a lack of security in the region.
The UN children’s organization, UNICEF, decried the incident and urged the government to take further steps to safeguard schoolchildren.
“Educations should be havens of knowledge and development, not places of terror and aggression,” stated Christian Munduate, the director of UNICEF Nigeria, in a statement.
UNICEF is concerned by the reports of abduction of students in Kaduna State.
We urge immediate action to ensure the safe return of the abducted children and staff & call on authorities to implement measures to secure schools across ??
Read full statement?https://t.co/Aw3oiL3tPW— UNICEF Nigeria (@UNICEF_Nigeria) March 7, 2024
According to Munduate, “this most recent kidnapping, like all the others, is extremely regrettable and a part of a concerning trend of attacks on educational institutions in Nigeria, especially in the northwest where armed groups have intensified their campaign of violence and kidnappings.”
Amnesty International urged the authorities to bring those responsible for the students’ safety to justice.
As it urged the government to “take immediate action to prevent attacks on schools, to protect children’s lives and their right to education,” the rights group stated on X that “schools should be places of safety, and no child should have to choose between their education and their life.”
“The administration has disregarded us.”
“We are all waiting to see what God can accomplish; we have no idea what to do. Fatima Usman, whose two children were among those taken, told the Reuters news agency over the phone, “They are my only children I have on Earth.”
Hassan Abdullahi, a different dad, told Reuters that local vigilantes had attempted to repel the gunmen but had been defeated.
“My children are among the seventeen students who have been abducted.” The administration has entirely ignored us in this regard, which makes me extremely unhappy,” Abdullahi remarked.
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