He gave the Department of State Services approval to deploy trained forest guards and recruit more staff to flush out armed groups hiding in forests.
“This is a national emergency, and we are responding by deploying more boots on the ground, especially in security-challenged areas,” Tinubu said in a statement Wednesday, adding there would be “no more hiding places for agents of evil.”
The announcement follows recent attacks in Kebbi, Borno, Zamfara, Niger, Yobe and Kwara states, where dozens of civilians have been killed and kidnapped.
Over the last week, assailants kidnapped two dozen Muslim schoolgirls in Kebbi, 38 worshippers, 315 schoolchildren and teachers from a Catholic school in Niger state, 13 young women and girls walking near a farm, and another 10 women and children.
Tinubu commended security forces for rescuing 24 schoolgirls in Kebbi and 38 worshippers in Kwara. He vowed to free the 265 children and their teachers abducted from the St Mary's Catholic boarding school in Niger state last Friday after just 50 of them managed to escape.
Parents lack information
Several parents of the 303 kidnapped schoolchildren told the Associated Press that the government had given them no information about rescue efforts and said one parent had died of a heart attack from the stress.
“Nobody from the government has briefed us about the abduction,” said Emmanuel Ejeh, whose 12-year-old son was taken from the Catholic school in the remote region of Papiri.
A spokesperson for the presidency, Bayo Onanuga, did not directly address parents’ claims of being left without updates. Onanuga told the AP on Wednesday that the military is mounting pressure on the gunmen to release the children.
No armed group has claimed responsibility for the abduction.
For years, heavily armed criminal gangs have been intensifying attacks in rural areas of northwest and central Nigeria, where there is little state presence, killing thousands and conducting kidnappings for ransom.
The gangs have camps in a vast forest straddling several states including Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi and Niger from where they launch attacks.
US President Donald Trump has claimed the abductions reflect “Christian persecution” in the West African country, but both Christians and Muslims are targeted.
The UN's children's agency, Unicef, last year said just 37 percent of schools across 10 states in Nigeria's volatile north have early-warning systems to detect threats.
Several parents of the 303 kidnapped schoolchildren told the Associated Press that the government had given them no information about rescue efforts and said one parent had died of a heart attack from the stress.
“Nobody from the government has briefed us about the abduction,” said Emmanuel Ejeh, whose 12-year-old son was taken from the Catholic school in the remote region of Papiri.
A spokesperson for the presidency, Bayo Onanuga, did not directly address parents’ claims of being left without updates. Onanuga told the AP on Wednesday that the military is mounting pressure on the gunmen to release the children.
No armed group has claimed responsibility for the abduction.
For years, heavily armed criminal gangs have been intensifying attacks in rural areas of northwest and central Nigeria, where there is little state presence, killing thousands and conducting kidnappings for ransom.
The gangs have camps in a vast forest straddling several states including Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi and Niger from where they launch attacks.
US President Donald Trump has claimed the abductions reflect “Christian persecution” in the West African country, but both Christians and Muslims are targeted.
The UN's children's agency, Unicef, last year said just 37 percent of schools across 10 states in Nigeria's volatile north have early-warning systems to detect threats.
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