Showing posts with label Violence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Violence. Show all posts

Monday, March 18, 2024

Video - Thousands of farmers in Nigeria still displaced three months after Bokkos village attacks



Many villages in north-central Nigeria remain deserted nearly three months after a series of coordinated attacks. Gunmen targeted over 20 villages in the Bokkos local government area of Plateau State over several days in December 2023. Thousands of people remain displaced.

CGTN

Related stories: Nigeria is also losing control of its troubled northwest region

Scores Killed In Massacre Of Farmers In Nigeria

Nigeria considering state policing to combat growing insecurity

 

 

Video - 16 Nigerian soldiers killed in attack in Delta State



National defense authorities in Nigeria have ordered the arrests of those behind the killing of sixteen soldiers. 

CGTN

Related story: Nigeria military denies reprisal attack after 16 troops killed

 

Video - Families and victims in Nigeria reeling from impact of kidnappings



For much of the last decade, Nigeria's northern region has been plagued by abductions and attacks on schools. These kidnappings leave victims and their families with physical and psychological scars, as well as financial turmoil due to hefty ransom demands.

CGTN

Related stories: Video - Kaduna state abductions raise Nigeria's insecurity crisis

President Tinubu rules out ransoms for abducted students as observers urge dialogue

kidnappers say they will kill all 287 school if $622,000 ransom not paid

61 people kidnapped in Kaduna, Nigeria

Video - At least 15 students kidnapped in Nigeria - Third mass kidnapping since last week

Gunmen abduct 287 students in northwestern Nigeria in latest school attack

Suspected insurgents kidnap 50 people in northeast Nigeria

Video - Kaduna state abductions raise Nigeria's insecurity crisis



Authorities in Nigeria's Kaduna State, are determined to address the increasing number of abductions. Armed groups have been wreaking havoc in the area for years. They target villagers, motorists on highways, and students from schools, demanding ransom in return.

CGTN

Related stories: President Tinubu rules out ransoms for abducted students as observers urge dialogue

kidnappers say they will kill all 287 school if $622,000 ransom not paid

61 people kidnapped in Kaduna, Nigeria

Video - At least 15 students kidnapped in Nigeria - Third mass kidnapping since last week

Gunmen abduct 287 students in northwestern Nigeria in latest school attack

Suspected insurgents kidnap 50 people in northeast Nigeria


Thursday, March 14, 2024

President Tinubu rules out ransoms for abducted students as observers urge dialogue

President Tinubu has ruled out the payment of ransoms for nearly 300 schoolchildren abducted from their school in the conflict-hit north a week ago, raising questions from analysts on Thursday about how best to rescue the children without hurting them.

Meanwhile, at least two people with extensive knowledge of the security crisis in Nigeria's northwest told The Associated Press the abductors of the schoolchildren in the state of Kaduna are known and are hiding in the vast ungoverned and unoccupied forests of the region. They both urged the government to engage in dialogue with the armed groups to resolve the protracted conflict.

At least 1,400 students have so far been kidnapped from Nigerian schools since the first major school abduction — in Borno state’s Chibok village in 2014 — stunned the world. Most of those eventually released only regained their freedom after ransom payments, according to their schools and parents, even though the Nigerian government does not admit to paying ransoms.

On Wednesday, Nigeria's information minister Mohammed Idris told reporters that President Bola Tinubu directed security agencies to urgently rescue the schoolchildren and "in the process to ensure that not a dime is paid for ransom.”

No group has claimed responsibility for the Kaduna attack. Local residents blamed bandit groups known for mass killings and kidnappings for ransom in northwestern and central regions, most of them herders in conflict with host communities.

Unlike the Chibok girls, who were seized by Islamic militants from the Boko Haram group, no religious motive is suspected in the most recent abductions.

The mastermind of the Kaduna abduction is known, as are other bandit leaders, said Murtala Ahmed Rufa’i, an associate professor of peace and conflict studies at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, in Sokoto state, and one of Nigeria’s foremost conflict researchers.

“His father is alive,” he said of the suspect behind the Kaduna abduction. "These bandits are people that are known by their names, families and by their locations. If you want to engage, you talk to the parents. They are criminals (but) still have parents that they listen to,” he said.

At least 100 of the schoolchildren abducted in Kaduna are estimated to be aged 12 or younger, fitting an established pattern, with children seen as easy targets to mount pressure on the government.

The children's abduction is not driven by the need for ransoms and such abductions can only be resolved through negotiations with the armed groups, according to Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, a Nigerian cleric known to have access to the bandits and who has negotiated with them in the past.

“It is more than an economic motive," Gumi said, saying there is “an underground ethnic war" between the the herdsmen from the Fulani ethnic group and other, more urbanized parts of Nigeria. His comments echoed claims made previously by the herdsmen that they struggle with less development than other regions.

Security operations to rescue those kidnapped sometimes stretch into months, leaving families desperate to meet the ransom demands.

“People whose relations are kidnapped don’t cooperate with security agencies. Otherwise, some of these money being paid, since they are not electronically transferred, could be traced,” said Mike Ejiofor, a former director with Nigeria’s secret police.

The minister’s comments suggests the government has “other alternatives to use to free those people,” said Ejiofor. However, the use of force could have serious consequences, he warned. “To go and do it forcefully, I think we will have some collateral damage,” he said.

By Chinedu Asadu, AP

Related stories: kidnappers say they will kill all 287 school if $622,000 ransom not paid

61 people kidnapped in Kaduna, Nigeria

Video - At least 15 students kidnapped in Nigeria - Third mass kidnapping since last week

Gunmen abduct 287 students in northwestern Nigeria in latest school attack

Suspected insurgents kidnap 50 people in northeast Nigeria

Nigeria Orders Creation of Police Base in Remote Community After Mass Kidnappings

Police in Nigeria have ordered the creation of a new base for officers and the deployment of special forces in a remote village in northwest Kaduna state, where nearly 300 students were abducted by armed bandits on March 7.

Nigerian police chief Kayode Egbetokun announced plans for the new base and the deployment during a visit with Kaduna Governor Uba Sani on Tuesday.

He said the steps will help restore residents’ confidence in their safety while security forces continue the search for the missing students.

Last Thursday, armed bandits on motorbikes invaded an elementary school in the village of Kuriga in Kaduna state and abducted 287 school students — the highest single abduction of students in years.

Days later in a separate attack, bandits kidnapped 61 people from Kajuru district, about 150 kilometers miles away.

The new police base will be in Kuriga and deployment of extra officers to the area has begun.

Egbetokun says authorities are working to secure the abductees’ release.

"We're launching the special intervention squad for Kaduna state,” Egbetokun said. “If only to give confidence to the people, the men will be deployed and with the support that you have pledged to give, I’m sure that the community will start to feel safe again."

Sani said he is hopeful the police operations will succeed.

"We are extremely confident that the school children by the grace of God will return back home safely,” he said, “and I'm happy by the decision of the inspector general of police to quickly deploy mobile base in Kuriga community."

Last week, local media reported more than 300 women and children who were gathering firewood were kidnapped in northeastern Borno state by Islamic militants.

Insecurity is a major challenge for President Bola Tinubu, who launched an initiative called “Renewed Hope” after assuming office last May.

The recent kidnappings are blamed, in part, on the absence of security forces in those remote areas.

Last month, the president met with all 36 state governors to discuss decentralizing Nigeria’s police force and creating a police arm for each state.

Analyst Kabiru Adamu of Beacon Security said, if organized properly, this could be a step in the right direction.

“There are gaps within the security architecture,” Adamu said. “I am supportive of the decentralization of policing but I think what we need more than anything is accountability. So that by the time we create state police, the accountability elements that have been created in the federal level will trickle down to the state level."

Years of fighting Islamist militants and crime gangs have stretched Nigerian security forces thin.

Many are hoping the creation of new bases and state police arms will help keep the kidnappers away.

By Timothy Obiezu, VOA

Related stories: kidnappers say they will kil all 287 school if $622,000 ransom not paid

61 people kidnapped in Kaduna, Nigeria

Video - At least 15 students kidnapped in Nigeria - Third mass kidnapping since last week

Gunmen abduct 287 students in northwestern Nigeria in latest school attack

Suspected insurgents kidnap 50 people in northeast Nigeria

kidnappers say they will kill all 287 school if $622,000 ransom not paid

Gunmen who kidnapped at least 287 school children in Nigeria last Thursday have demanded a ransom of 1 billion naira ($621,848) and threatened to kill all of the students if their demands are not met, a member of the local community told CNN on Wednesday.

“They called me from a hidden number yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon at around 16 minutes past 12, and demanded 1 billion naira ($621,848) as a ransom for the students. They said [the ultimatum] will only last for three weeks or 20 days from the date they kidnapped the children and if there’s no action from the government, they will kill all of them,” said Aminu Jibril, a resident of Kuriga village, in Kaduna state, where the school is located.

The children were kidnapped on March 7.

Jibril also told CNN that the perpetrators said the kidnapping was “a way of getting back at the government and security agencies for killing their gang members.”

The member of the Kuriga community said he believed the kidnappers got his number from the head of the school’s junior secondary section, who was kidnapped alongside the students.

More than 300 students were taken early Thursday morning by armed bandits on motorcycles who stormed the LEA Primary and Secondary School in Kuriga village, in Kaduna’s Chikun district, the state’s police spokesman Mansur Hassan told CNN on Friday.

Some of the students were rescued but 287 of them remain with the kidnappers. About 100 of them are from the primary school and the rest from the secondary school.

The Kaduna Governor Uba Sani said in a statement Thursday that his government was “doing everything possible to ensure the safe return of the pupils and students.”

Sani also said a member of the community who confronted the abductors during the attack was killed.

Kaduna state, which borders the Nigerian capital Abuja to the southwest, has grappled with recurring incidents of kidnappings for ransom by bandits and has witnessed several mass abductions in recent years, including in the district where the LEA Primary and Secondary School is located.

In 2021, at least 140 students were kidnapped by armed men from a private secondary school.

The incident came just months after around 20 students from a private university in Chikun’s Kasarami village were abducted by gunmen.

Five of those students were killed after a ransom deadline was not met, family members told CNN at the time.

By Nimi Princewill, CNN

Related stories: 61 people kidnapped in Kaduna, Nigeria

Video - At least 15 students kidnapped in Nigeria - Third mass kidnapping since last week

Gunmen abduct 287 students in northwestern Nigeria in latest school attack

Suspected insurgents kidnap 50 people in northeast Nigeria

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Police station attacked, cars, shops torched by mob at Market in Nigeria capital

Protesters on Tuesday attacked a police station and set some cars on fire at the popular Wuse Market in Abuja, after a hawker was shot dead by security operatives.


Witnesses said the hawker, who the police identified as 27-year-old Ibrahim Yahaya, was shot after he was arrested by some “task force officers” and the police.

The hawker was trying to escape from custody when he was shot, shop owners, who said they witnessed the incident, said.

The killing was said to have triggered angry reactions from some youths in the market.

The mob made their way to the police station in the market, destroying windows and setting some cars in the surrounding on fire. About eight cars were burnt down in the incident that went wild at about 3.30 p.m.

The police fired teargas to disperse the mob, according to those who said they witnessed the incident.

About 10 shops also caught fire in the chaos.

A black plume of smoke rising above the market was seen by residents at places away from the scene.

Some shop owners blamed the fire that razed the shops on police teargas.

A shop owner, John Abasi, told PREMIUM TIMES: “Truly it was the teargas that caused the fire. You know when someone is killed, people will react. So people tried to attack the person who shot the guy, but he ran away. So they were going to destroy his things. That is why they burnt the cars there (pointing to the direction of the burnt cars). The police then started shooting the teargas which went into people’s shops and burnt their goods.”

Daily Trust reported that a senior official of the Abuja Markets Management Limited (AMML) inside the market confirmed that the shooting of the hawker provoked the attackers to burn down some shops. AMML office was said to have been affected by the fire. The official told the newspaper that the office and some vehicles in the car park within the market were torched by the youths.
 

Police confirm killing

The police, on Tuesday, confirmed the killing of the hawker, 27-year-old Mr Yahaya.

However, Police Public Relations Officer, FCT Command, Josephine Adeh, cleared the police of the shooting.

She said the deceased, who died after he was rushed to the hospital, was shot by a correctional service (prison) officer while he was trying to escape from custody.

“Preliminary investigation revealed that one Ibrahim Yahaya ‘27 years’ was apprehended by operatives of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) Task Force and was taken before a mobile court which sits every Tuesday in Wuse Market, and he was convicted,” the spokesperson wrote.

“Suspect alongside others were being conveyed to the prison, when he reportedly jumped from the vehicle and took to his heels in an attempt to escape. Two armed corrections personnel who were in the vehicle went after him and in the process, shot him. They said Ibrahim Yahaya was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors on the ground confirmed him dead.”

The police spokesperson said, “The development led some irate mobs who witnessed the situation to set ablaze eight (8) vehicles and ten (10) shops in the environ.”

She added: “The whole fire situation erupted uproar from residents but was brought under control by a combined effort of Federal fire service and other security agencies present.

“While normalcy has since been restored, and investigation still ongoing, the Commissioner of Police FCT, CP Benneth Igweh psc, mni, enjoins residents to peacefully go about their lawful businesses without fear.”
 

Officials speak

No fewer than 10 shops were razed down by fire in Wuse Market during the incident, according to the Federal Capital Territory Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

FEMA’s Head of Public Affairs, Nkechi Isa, said this in a statement in Abuja.

Mrs Isa, who said that no life was lost, added that the cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained.

She, however, said the fire was brought under control by a combined team of the Federal Fire Service, FCT Fire Service, and Julius Berger Fire Department.

The FEMA spokesperson said the agency received a distress call on the 112 emergency toll-free number at 4.05 p.m. about the fire incident at the market.

She added that the agency, being the lead coordinating body for all emergencies in the FCT, thereafter, activated its stakeholders to ensure maximum response.

Mrs Isa identified the stakeholders as the FCT Fire Service, Federal Fire Service, National Emergency Management Agency, FCT Police Command, and Julius Berger Fire Service.

The acting Director General of FEMA, Mohammed Sabo, appealed to FCT residents to equip their homes and business places with basic firefighting equipment like extinguishers and fire blankets.

Mr Sabo noted that the 10 shops affected by the fire incident did not have a fire extinguisher.

He also noted that access to the place was unhampered allowing the fire trucks to effectively fight the fire.

He advised market management to put a fire tinder in place to prevent loss of properties during fire outbreaks.

Mr Sabo also urged FCT residents to avoid storing petroleum products and other combustible items in their homes.

He called on residents to always use the 112-emergency toll-free number in the event of an emergency.

Earlier, Innocent Amaechina, spokesperson for the Abuja Market Management Ltd (AMML), who confirmed the outbreak of the fire, said that only a portion of the market was affected.

Mr Amaechina refuted the erroneous report in social media that the whole market was engulfed in fire.

The official, who also could not confirm the cause of the fire, said the incident reportedly began between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.

He said that some shops, including the office of the AMML in the market, were burnt down by the fire.

He added that some vehicles parked at the northern parking lots in the market were equally burnt.

“I have not been able to have access to the market to assess the extent of the damage, but the police and fire service officials have arrived at the scene and taken control of the situation,” he said.

By Ademola Popoola, Premium Times

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

61 people kidnapped in Kaduna, Nigeria

At least 61 people were reportedly abducted as terrorists attacked Buda, a community in Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State, on Monday.

Residents of the area told PUNCH Newspaper that the latest mass abduction incident happened late Monday night at about 11:45 p.m.

A resident, Dauda Kajuru, said the kidnappers stormed the community in large numbers, shooting indiscriminately as they abducted residents.


“What happened yesterday was terrifying. The bandits came intending to abduct scores of people that’ll outnumber that of school pupils in Kuriga Village of Chikun Local Government Area, but the swift response of soldiers who were not more than 2 kilometres away from Kajuru curtailed the number.

“My siblings were part of those abducted yesterday and based on the information available as of this morning, the bandits with their victims are yet to get to their destination,” Mr Kajuru was quoted by the newspaper.

He said the terrorists operated unchallenged because of the removal of an army commander popular known as (Tega) serving in the area. He said terrorist activities resumed around the Kajuru local council after the army officer was posted out.

Another resident, Lawal Abdullahi, whose wife was among the victims, also confirmed that 61 people were abducted in the late-night incident.

Mr Abdullahi said the victims in the Monday attack included women, children and a nursing mother.

The attack came days after terrorists invaded a public school in Kuriga and abducted over 287 schoolchildren in the same state.

The victims of the attack on Kuriga are still with their abductors in the forest.

The Kaduna State Government is yet to speak on the latest incident.

The phone number of the state Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, did not connect Thursday afternoon when PREMIUM TIMES tried to have him comment on the development.

Also, the police spokesperson in the state, Mansir Hassan, could not be reached on the phone.

By Abubakar Ahmadu Maishanu, Premium Times

Related stories: Video - At least 15 students kidnapped in Nigeria - Third mass kidnapping since last week

Gunmen abduct 287 students in northwestern Nigeria in latest school attack

Suspected insurgents kidnap 50 people in northeast Nigeria

More kidnappings are feared in Nigeria as state body prepares intervention measures

Schoolboy recounts daring escape from kidnappers

Musa Garba,17, had to slither on the ground like a snake to avoid being detected by his kidnappers as he made his escape through the bush of northern Nigeria.

Earlier, camouflaged by his school uniform, the teenager had managed to hide in a heap of cut grass as the group of schoolchildren he was abducted with were taking a break from their forced trek.

More than 280 of them were snatched last week from a school in the town of Kuriga, in Kaduna state, traumatising a community.

"We saw motorbikes on the road. We thought they were soldiers, before we realised they had occupied the school premises and started shooting," Musa tells the BBC as he recalls Thursday morning's terrifying events. We have changed his name for his own safety, along with that of another kidnapped boy mentioned in the article.

"We tried to run away, but they chased us and caught us. They gathered us like cows into the bush."

These armed men on motorbikes - referred to locally as bandits - had been menacing the community for some time, with the security forces apparently unable to deal with the threat. Kuriga had been persistently attacked by gangs seeking to kidnap people and make money from ransom payments.

The scale of this latest abduction and the fact that it involved children as young as seven has been overwhelming for many here.

"We watched them carrying our children away just right here and there's nothing we could do. We don't have military, we don't have police in the community," a distressed Hajiya Hauwa says, through tears.

Musa was one of those taken away.

"While we were moving in the bush, at some points, we were all thirsty, but there was no water. Some girls and boys were just falling as we moved because they were all tired," he says.

"The bandits had to carry some of them on the bike."

At one point, deep into the bush, they were able to quench their thirst at a river which came as a big relief for the children who had not had breakfast and had been forced to walk for several hours under the hot sun.

Musa kept looking for ways to escape and tried to encourage others to join him but they were too afraid.

He saw his chance as the sun was setting. Looking around to ensure he was not being monitored, he hid in one of the heaps of grass and lay still.

"After all was quiet, [to avoid detection] I started dragging myself like a snake on the ground." Once it was totally dark, he got up and walked off until he got to a village where he got help.

He took a huge risk that could have led to him being killed at the slightest mistake, but some are saying that God protected him.

When he appeared the next day in Kuriga, his parents were jubilant, but he came with harrowing tales of the children still in captivity.

The parents of 10-year-old Sadiq Usman Abdullahi are still waiting for news about him.

The last time the family saw the jovial and much-loved boy was when he had dashed back home on Thursday morning saying he had forgotten his pencil for school - shortly before the kidnappers drove into the town.

"He came to ask me: 'Hassan do you have a pencil?'" his 21-year-old brother says.

"I told him to check my bag. Sadiq was in a rush, so he scattered my things. He found the pencil. I told him to tidy my bag. Then he took his socks and ran out."

His mother, Rahmatu Usman Abdullahi, says she has not been able to sleep since that day.

"I always think about him, I can't sleep. What kind of sleep can I even have? Look at my eyes! What kind of sleep? May God just help us," she says, looking up to seek divine intervention.

But Musa and Sadiq are just two among the more than 4,000 people who have been kidnapped in Nigeria in the past eight months, according to one estimate.

In the last decade and a half, people in northern Nigeria have come under intense attack by armed militant groups.

At first, this mainly happened in the north-eastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, where the Islamist group, known as Boko Haram (meaning "Western education is forbidden") is active.

A second force, linked to the Islamic State group, has also emerged.

Both sets of jihadist groups were involved in kidnapping, targeting farmers, travellers and even razing villages to the ground.

Schools, seen as the home of Western education, became a target. The notorious attack on the girls' school in Chibok 10 years ago set a template.

"There has been an escalation in attacks on schools in northern Nigeria. Primary schools, secondary schools and universities have come under attack," says Shehu Sani, a former senator for Kaduna state. He argues that the aim is to discourage parents from sending their children to school.

"At the same time, when they attack and kidnap, they do it with the intension of raising funds - to buy more arms and also to continue their criminal activities."

But their methods have spread across the north with the criminal gangs known as bandits adopting the same approach, as they have seen that kidnapping schoolchildren often attracts attention, and therefore ransoms.

"They are motivated by money. They simply kidnap people, and once ransom is paid to them, they release their hostages. They have no political agenda and no clear-cut leadership," Mr Sani says.

The government has invested a lot of time and money in tackling the issue, but there are still communities that feel unprotected.

Kuriga is one of those.

Jibril Gwadabe, a local traditional chief, says that the place is plagued by the bandits, due to the absence of security forces in the area.

"I have been a victim myself," the 64-year-old says.

"I was going to my farm one day, two years ago when they stopped me. I started struggling with them and they shot me in my stomach. The bullet came out from my back. I was hospitalised for one month here in Kaduna, but I survived."

The authorities have promised that the children will soon be returned home alive. But people in Kuriga are still worried.

"We don't know the condition of our children up till now. We don't know how they are, where they are," Chief Gwadabe says.

By Chris Ewokor, BBC

Related stories: More kidnappings are feared in Nigeria as state body prepares intervention measures

Video - At least 15 students kidnapped in Nigeria - Third mass kidnapping since last week

Gunmen abduct 287 students in northwestern Nigeria in latest school attack

Monday, March 11, 2024

More kidnappings are feared in Nigeria as state body prepares intervention measures

Nigeria's federal government has reportedly listed schools in 14 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as at risk of attacks by bandits and insurgents.

Local media cited the national coordinator of state-run Financing Safe Schools.

If coordinator Hajia Halima Iliya didn't name specific states on Sunday, newspaper The Punch reports that most of the 14 states are in Nigeria's North and east.

The Financing Safe Schools national coordinator also said that the agency had collected data to guide intervention measures.

On March 7, — Gunmen kidnapped 287 students in the Kaduna State town of Kuriga, in north central Nigeria.

Armed men broke into a boarding school in Gidan Bakuso village in Sokoto State, noth western Nigeria, on March 9, and seized 15 children.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said on March 8th that he directed security and intelligence agencies to rescue the victims and ensure that justice is served against the perpetrators.

Since the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by Boko Haram fighters in 2014 almost a decade ago, the number of students abducted has reportedly risen to more than 1,400.

By Rédaction Africanews and AP

Related stories: At least 15 students kidnapped in Nigeria - Third mass kidnapping since last week

Gunmen abduct 287 students in northwestern Nigeria in latest school attack

Suspected insurgents kidnap 50 people in northeast Nigeria


Video - At least 15 students kidnapped in Nigeria - Third mass kidnapping since last week



At least 15 students were kidnapped from a school in Nigeria’s northwestern Sokoto state, by gunmen who forced their way into the school early Saturday. According to the school owner, some of those abducted are aged below 13. This is the third mass kidnapping in northern Nigeria since late last week.

CGTN

Related stories: Gunmen abduct 287 students in northwestern Nigeria in latest school attack

Suspected insurgents kidnap 50 people in northeast Nigeria

 

Video - Bandits force farming communities in Nigeria to pay hefty levies



According to a report by SBM, an Africa-focused geopolitical research firm, farmers in northwestern states like Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara and Jigawa, where banditry is widespread, often pay bandits twice just to be allowed to use their land during the planting and harvesting seasons. The situation has adversely affected Nigeria's food security.

CGTN

Related stories: Civilians are stepping in to keep the peace in the deadly feud between herders and farmers

Dozens killed in ‘barbaric, senseless’ violence in Nigeria


Thursday, March 7, 2024

Gunmen abduct 287 students in northwestern Nigeria in latest school attack

Gunmen attacked a school in Nigeria’s northwest region Thursday morning and abducted at least 287 students, the headteacher told authorities, marking the second mass abduction in the West African nation in less than a week.

Locals told The Associated Press the assailants surrounded the government-owned school in Kaduna State’s Kuriga town just as the pupils were about to start the school day.

Authorities had said earlier that more than 100 students were taken hostage in the attack. Sani Abdullahi, the headteacher, however, told Kaduna Gov. Uba Sani when he visited the town that the total number of those missing after a headcount was 287.

“We will ensure that every child will come back. We are working with the security agencies,” the governor told the villagers.

Abductions of students from schools in northern Nigeria are common and have become a source of concern since 2014 when Islamic extremists kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls in Borno state’s Chibok village. In recent years, the abductions have been concentrated in northwestern and central regions, where dozens of armed groups often target villagers and travelers for huge ransoms.

The assailants stormed a government primary school in Chikun’s Kuriga town shortly after morning assembly at 8 a.m., taking almost 200 pupils hostage before any help could come, said Joshua Madami, a local youth leader.

Security forces and a government delegation arrived in the town several hours later as a search operation widened, while community members and parents gathered to wait for news.

“The government is trying everything possible with the security agencies to see how we can rescue them,” said Musa, the council chairman.

The attack occurred days after more than 200 people, mostly women and children, were abducted by extremists in northeastern Nigeria.
Women, children and students are often targeted in the mass abductions in the conflict-hit northern region and many victims are released only after paying huge ransoms.

Observers say both attacks are a reminder of Nigeria’s worsening security crisis which resulted in the deaths of several hundred people in 2023, according to an AP analysis.

Bola Tinubu was elected president of Nigeria last year after promising to end the violence. But there has been “no tangible improvement in security situation yet” under Tinubu, said Oluwole Ojewale, West and Central Africa researcher with the Africa-focused Institute for Security Studies.

Chinedu Asadu, AP

Related stories: Suspected insurgents kidnap 50 people in northeast Nigeria

Video - Nigerian police arrest hundreds in kidnapping crackdown

Gunmen kill four, abduct at least 40 in northwest Nigeria

Video - Bandit extortion fuels food insecurity in northern Nigeria



A report by an Africa-focused geopolitical firm highlights cases in banditry-ravaged states like Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, and Jigawa. Farmers say the bandits' actions have forced many to abandon their farms, which leads to decreased food production.

CGTN

Related story: Video - Insecurity in Nigeria's northern regions hampering food production

 

Ex-Boko Haram fighters threaten return to arms in Nigeria

Former Boko Haram militants in Nigeria have warned they might return to fighting if they don't get more support from the authorities.

The ex-fighters, who now live in camps in Borno state, northeastern Nigeria, say they are frustrated that for months their essential needs had been ignored.

Some told DW that they were better off fighting for the militant group than living in the camps.

"Honestly, if the government does not fulfill what they promised us, there is going to be a serious problem," one of the former insurgents told DW. "Look at how I lost weight and lost my shape. Sincerely speaking, I prefer going [back] to the bush."

The Borno state and Nigeria's federal government promised Boko Haram fighters who surrendered that they would receive training and skills as an alternative to violence and militancy. The Nigerian authorities also pledged to provide start-off capital for the ex-fighters and reintegrate them into society if they laid down their arms.

But over the past two years, only few have benefited from what the government promised. There are over 100,000 former Boko Haram members living in various camps in Borno state awaiting reintegration.
 

Protests outside camps

Last month, some former members — joined by their families — staged a protest outside Dikwa camp located in Borno state over their concerns.

There were similar agitations in the Mafa camp, which also houses ex-Boko Haram fighters and other internally displaced persons. Former militants in these camps have all threatened to return to the bush if their needs are not met.

Some confided in DW that several former combatants had already returned to their forest enclaves.

"Most of them are saying they are better off when they are with the insurgents because they are doing well in terms of food and essentials," another former Boko Haram fighter told DW. " Most of them are willing to go back to where they came from."
 

Authorities dismiss threats

However, Babagana Umara Zulum, Borno state governor, insisted that the government is doing its best to support the ex-fighters. Zulum accused the former fighters of showing a lack of gratitude.

"No any administration be it federal or state has the capacity to provide food and non-food items to the millions of its people on a daily basis," Zulum told DW, adding that anybody willing to stay in the camp was welcome to do so.

"Anybody who is not willing to stay in the camp — he wants to go to the bush — allow him to go back to the bush."

The governor revealed that efforts are ongoing to address the issue of food shortages at the camps housing these former fighters and others.

He warned that anyone instigating the ongoing agitations to desist. "Anybody who is trying to sabotage this administration will be dealt with accordingly."

Ex-fighters a major security threat

Security experts and analysts have warned the government against ignoring the agitations and threats from the former fighters.

Major (retired) Muhammad Bashir Shu'aibu Galma told DW the threat of returning to the bush is dangerous for Nigeria and the entire Sahel region.

"To allow these people to go back to the fighting spirit is the worst thing," Shu'aibu said. "These people must have known enough now some of the military secrets, positions, even for the limited time they had and mingled with the society, it will be a setback," he added.

Professor Lawal Jafar Tahir, a political analyst from Yobe State University Damaturu, agrees and expressed fears of Nigeria's security situation worsening should the ex-fighters opt to pick up guns again.

"They are more or less a time bomb now to society," Tahir said, adding that if the former militants return to the bush and continue the insurgency, it could be more dangerous.

According to him, the fighters "have now gathered reasonable information and opportunity to attack people, particularly the civilians."

Tahir urged the government to address their demands promptly. "When they revolt, it is going to be very hard for the government to control them," he added.

Last year, the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) cited the Boko Haram insurgency as President Bola Tinubu's most challenging security threat.

The insurgency — in its fifteenth year — has shown no signs of ending despite efforts by Nigeria's military to curb it.

Boko Haram is most active in northeastern Nigeria, with footholds in Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

By Muhammad Al-Amin, DW

Related story: Suspected insurgents kidnap 50 people in northeast Nigeria

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Suspected insurgents kidnap 50 people in northeast Nigeria

Suspected Islamist insurgents kidnapped 50 people, mostly women, in northeastern Nigeria this week, local officials and a resident said on Wednesday, the latest mass abduction by fighters who have waged an insurgency for more than a decade.

Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters have mainly operated in Borno state in the northeast, targeting security forces and civilians, in the process killing and displacing tens of thousands of people.

The latest incident took place on Monday in the remote Gamboru area, which shares a border with Chad and Cameroon, said an official of the Civilian Joint Task Force, which helps the army to fight the jihadists.

The official, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said the group of at least 50 people from a camp for internally displaced persons, went to collect firewood on the shores of Lake Chad, where ISWAP is known to operate.

They were ambushed by gunmen and made to walk across bushy paths into neighbouring Chad, the official said, adding that three of the kidnapped women managed to escape.

The Nigerian Army did not respond to a request for comment.

Falmata Bukar, one of the three women who escaped, told Reuters by phone that the gunmen had "surrounded us and we were asked to follow them to the bush."

She later escaped with two others on Tuesday, she said.

Barkindo Saidu, head of Borno's emergency agency, said he was travelling to the area to assess the situation but was not yet ready to declare the people missing.

The agency is in charge of camps housing thousands of Nigerians displaced by the insurgency. 

By Ahmed Kingimi, Reuters

Related stories: School in Nigeria helps girls to heal after Boko Haram

Video - 12 killed in Nigeria by suspected Boko Haram militant

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Terrorists kill traditional ruler, five residents, burn down vehicles in Katsina, Nigeria

Six residents, including the ward head, Haruna Wakili, were killed when terrorists attacked Yar Nasarawa, a community in Faskari Local Government Area of Katsina State on Monday.

Residents said the terrorists abducted about 38 residents, including women and children and left 10 residents with gunshot injuries. They also burnt down six houses, eight commercial vehicles and shops in the community.

Yar Nasarawa is less than five kilometres away from the Army Super Camp situated in Faskari. The camp was established by the former Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, in 2018.

“The attackers came prepared. I have never seen them in such number,” a resident, Auwal Liman, who said he ran into the bush during the attack, said. “While some of them were shooting indiscriminately, others were putting vehicles and shops on fire.”

The terrorists stormed the community around 11 p.m. and blocked all entries and exits to ward off support from the military and members of the Community Watch Corps in the area.

The six dead residents were buried Tuesday morning in the community, according to Mr Liman.

“We are in a sorry situation. We can’t go to the farm. When we stay away from our farms and local markets, the terrorists follow us into our communities and kill us. Our lives hardly matter,” Mr Liman lamented.

Motorcycle-riding terrorists have been unleashing mayhem on residents in the north-west for over a decade. leading to layers of humanitarian crises in the sub-region.

“The terrorists were merciless in yesterday’s attack,” a resident, Abdullahi Adamu, said. “They burnt down a child. They took him inside his mother’s room set the room ablaze and slaughtered another old man in the same house. It was barbaric.”

Mr Adamu, who said he climbed a rock outside the community and waited till early morning, said he has lost hope in the government and security agencies.

The police spokesperson in the state, Abubakar-Sadik Aliyu, confirmed the attack to journalists in Katsina but did not provide the details.

“The Commissioner of Police, CP Aliyu Musa, had since deployed the command’s tactical, operational and intelligence to the scene, and currently combing the surrounding bushes for the possible arrest of the perpetrators for diligent prosecution,” Mr Aliyu said.

By Mohammed Babangida, Premium Times

Related stories: Gunmen kill four, abduct at least 40 in northwest Nigeria

Judge kidnapped in Nigeria and guard killed

Traditional monarch shot dead and wife kidnapped from palace in Nigeria

Nigeria police repel attack by gunmen, one officer dies

A group of armed men attacked a police division in Zurmi town, in Nigeria's northwest Zamfara state, but were repelled by officers with casualties recorded on both sides, the police said on Monday.

Gangs of heavily armed men referred to as bandits by locals have wreaked havoc across Nigeria's northwest in the past three years, kidnapping thousands, killings hundreds, and making it unsafe to travel by road or to farm in some areas.

Zamfara police spokesperson Yazid Abubakar said suspected bandits wielding sophisticated weapons attacked the division late on Sunday, killing a senior officer and wounding two others.

"The policemen on duty retaliated and repelled the attack after a serious gun duel in which many of the bandits were killed and some took to their heels with possible gunshot wounds," Abubakar said in a statement.

Abubakar said the police have begun an investigation and have deployed more men to fortify the town and arrest fleeing culprits.

Residents said at least seven people were killed during the shootout, including the divisional crime officer.
Ibrahim Mohammed, a resident of Zurmi who witnessed the attack, told Reuters by phone that an unspecified number of people were kidnapped and the police division was set ablaze.

"They ransacked the place and set ablaze some shops and cars near the police station," Mohammed said.
Another resident Usman Abubakar said, "as I speak with you, they also abducted some people whose numbers cannot be immediately ascertained."

Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, is grappling with a multifaceted security crisis, including kidnappings for ransom, which has reached alarming proportions.

The widespread insecurity is exacerbating a cost-of-living crisis caused in part by the reforms of President Bola Tinubu who has yet to detail how he plans to the tackle the situation. 

By Ahmed Kingimi, Reuters

Related story: 8 police officers killed by suspected rebels in Nigeria

 

School in Nigeria helps girls to heal after Boko Haram

What 19-year-old Binta Usman remembers most vividly about her early days at the Lafiya Sarari girls’ school in Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria’s Borno state, are the frequent tears that made it hard for her to concentrate in class.


“We’d all be sitting in class and all of us would just be crying,” she says.

Like Usman, whose father was killed and family held captive by the militant jihadist group Boko Haram, all 100 women and girls at the school have either witnessed a parent’s murder or been kidnapped themselves.

Another pupil, 17-year-old Hassana, recalls being forced to join the militants, handling weapons and carry out acts of violence. “We drank blood,” she says.

Boko Haram has targeted schools as part of its campaign of atrocities in north-eastern Nigeria since 2010. It has carried out massacres and multiple abductions, including 2014’s killing of 59 schoolboys, the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok in 2014 and 101 girls in Dapchi in 2018.

Between 2013 and 2018, according to the UN, Boko Haram abducted more than 1,000 children, using them as soldiers and domestic or sex slaves. Amnesty International has estimated that 1,436 schoolchildren and 17 teachers were abducted between December 2020 and October 2021.

The Lafiya Sarari school was set up in response to the terror Boko Haram has inflicted. Established in 2017 by the Neem Foundation, a Nigerian charity set up to help communities affected by violence, the school is designed to provide support and education to those who have suffered trauma.

“What we do is a trauma-informed learning approach,” says Dr Fatima Akilu, a psychologist who helped set up the foundation. “It’s not a set programme.”

She says: “Some people have post-traumatic stress disorder, some come in with depression, some come with anxiety – it changes.

“We used to have a psychologist in the early days when we first started, but now all we have is a full-time counsellor who knows the girls, who has been with them throughout.”

Akilu initially envisioned Lafiya Sarari as a model of reconciliation, where children of victims, perpetrators and the security forces could receive education together.

But the conflict disrupted education, leaving gaps in learning for children too old for traditional primary school classes. “I didn’t even know ‘ABC’ when I came here,” says Usman, who enrolled aged 12.

The selection process involved interviewing girls aged between 11 and 14 from displaced communities and in refugee camps. “We selected girls who were tenacious and could become something because this was going to be quite a long project.

“Quite a few of the girls had come out of captivity at the time, so some of them were really in a bad state [and] needed trauma support. That was also one of the criteria because we could give them long-term treatment,” says Akilu.

Funding for the ongoing pilot programme for 100 girls came from a grant by the US Catena Foundation. Initially, the students learned together, but as they progressed they were streamed by academic achievement. Thirty pupils have successfully passed national exams and are preparing for university this year.

It is a far cry from how they arrived, fearful and distrustful. They struggled to interact or form friendships with other children and often resorted to violence at the slightest provocation. “They only knew how to fight,” says Yakubu Gwadeda, the deputy headteacher.

“They didn’t know how to interact with each other peacefully, how to queue,” he says.

Those who had been involved with Boko Haram, like Hassana, used to try to intimidate their peers with the threat of violence.

“They went through intervention sessions, coping, resilience, expressive therapy,” says the school counsellor, Hauwa Abdullahi Zaifada. “Some could not talk about their experience but we got to hear their stories through drawings and music.

“Sometimes,” she adds, “they would come to the sessions and not say a word, and we would have to reschedule.”

One of Zaifada’s primary goals was to overcome Boko Haram’s indoctrination against education. She found an opportunity when several girls spoke of their desire for revenge against those who had killed their parents or exploited them.

“I told them that you don’t have to be a soldier or hold a gun for revenge,” Zaifada says. “Education can be their revenge.

“They realised that education is valuable and can help them. That’s how they started picking up in school and doing well.”

Falmata Mohammed Talba, 20, found the daily therapy at school so beneficial that she began replicating the sessions with her two brothers, who attend a government-run school.

She helped them cope with the trauma they collectively experienced after witnessing their father’s murder by Boko Haram and then being held captive with their mother.

“When I first started, I used to see her one-on-one almost every day for about six months. Sometimes, I would even run out of the class. Talking to the psychologist helped me a lot,” Talba says.

“I helped my brothers the way Lafiya Sarari helped me. I tell my brothers, ‘This is what they told me. Why don’t you too start practising it?’ That’s how they changed.”

Talba says she and her brothers can now openly discuss their father without succumbing to tears or anger. “We now say, ‘Remember this when we were with Dad’, and we can laugh,” she says.

Hassana’s psychological progress has been notable, even though her academic advancement has been slower than that of some of her peers. She still relies on an interpreter to express herself in English.

“My relatives were so worried about my behaviour that whenever I started acting out, they would start shouting out passages of the Qur’an to calm me down,” she says. “But all that has stopped. The nightmares have also stopped.”

Seven years after the launch of Lafiya Sarari, Zaifada still has daily sessions with her students.

“Now I don’t have to look for them. They come to me if they have any issues,” she says. “Most of the issues now are environmental – peer-group influences, family issues.”

As for Usman, the crying has stopped. She smiles broadly as she shares her aspirations of winning a scholarship to study law at Cambridge University.

“I hear it is a good school,” she says.

By Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, The Guardian 

Related story: Nigeria set to recover £6.9m looted during Boko Haram incursions