NAIJAFEED: kidnap

Showing posts with label kidnap. Show all posts

Monday, December 5, 2022

A dozen people killed in Mosque by Gunmen in Nigeria, others abducted

Gunmen in Nigeria killed a dozen worshippers, including an imam, and kidnapped several others from a mosque on Saturday night, local residents said on Sunday, in the latest attack by armed gangs in the north of the country.

Armed gangs, known as bandits, attack communities where security is stretched, killing people or kidnapping them for ransom. The gangs also demand villagers pay protection fees to be allowed to farm and harvest their crops.

Lawal Haruna, a resident of Funtua, in President Muhammadu Buhari's home state of Katsina, told Reuters by phone that the gunmen arrived at Maigamji mosque on motorbikes and started shooting sporadically, which forced worshippers to flee.

About 12, who were attending night prayers, were caught in the gunfire and killed, including the chief imam, said Haruna.

"They then gathered many people and took them to the bush. I'm praying that the bandits release the innocent people they abducted," said Abdullahi Mohammed, another resident of Funtua.

Katsina state police spokesman Gambo Isah confirmed the attack and said state-backed vigilantes, with the support of some residents, had managed to rescue some worshippers.

Katsina is among several states in the northwest of Nigeria which share a border with neighbouring Niger, allowing the gangs to move freely between the two countries.

Nigeria's military has been bombing bush camps used by the bandits, but the attacks continue, raising fears about the safety of voters who will go to the polls to choose Buhari's successor in February.

Reuters

Gunmen abduct more than 100 in Nigeria's Zamfara state

Monday, November 21, 2022

Gunmen abduct more than 100 in Nigeria's Zamfara state

More than 100 people, including women and children were abducted when gunmen raided four villages in Nigeria's northeastern Zamfara state on Sunday, the information commissioner and residents said on Monday.

Kidnapping has become endemic in northwest Nigeria as roving gangs of armed men abduct people from villages, highways and farms and demand ransom money from their relatives.

More than 40 people were abducted from Kanwa village in Zurmi local government area of Zamfara, Zamfara information commissioner Ibrahim Dosara and one local resident said.

Another 37, mostly women and children were taken in Kwabre community in the same local government area, the resident added, declining to be named for security reasons.

"Right now Kanwa village is deserted, the bandits divided themselves into two groups and attacked the community. They kidnapped children aged between 14 to 16 years and women," the Kanwa village resident said.

In Yankaba and Gidan Goga communities of Maradun Local government area, at least 38 people were kidnapped while working on their farms, residents said.

Information commissioner Dosara accused the gunmen of using abductees as human shields against air raids from the military.

Reuters, by Garba Muhammad

Nigeria’s booming kidnap-for-ransom enterprise threatens security

Video - More than 300 schoolgirls abducted in Northwest Nigeria

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Five sisters released by Gunmen after parents pay ransom

Gunmen have freed five sisters abducted six months ago from their boarding school in northwest Nigeria after their parents paid ransom money to secure their release, police and relatives said.

The bandits kidnapped 11 schoolgirls, including the sisters, from a secondary school in Zamfara state in March and later released six of them. The sisters were detained because the kidnappers found out their father had previously worked as a senior government official in the state.

Kidnapping has become endemic as roving gangs of armed men abduct people from schools, hospitals, roads and farms and demand ransom money from their relatives.

Hadiza Abubakar, the mother of the school girls, said a total of 72 million naira ($164,000) was paid as ransom in three instalments in exchange for their freedom.

She said the bandits last month posted a video showing her daughters with rifles and ammunitions, pressuring the family to meet their demands.

"Initially, we almost lost hope especially when we saw them in a video with guns around their necks," Abubakar told Reuters.

A Zamfara police spokesperson confirmed the release of the five girls but did not mention the ransom payment.

Last week, a group of 21 children who were abducted by gunmen from a farm in northwestern Nigeria's Katsina state were freed and reunited with their families, police said.

Reuters, by Chijioke Ohuocha

Two police officers arrested for the kidnapping of Okonjo-Iweala's Mother

Catholic priest kidnapped in northern Nigeria

A Nigerian priest was kidnapped from his home in northern Kaduna state, the local Roman Catholic diocese said in a statement on Tuesday, in the first such reported abduction of a clergyman in the state since July.

Armed gangs are rife across northern Nigeria where they rob or kidnap for ransom, and violence has been increasing, where thinly stretched security forces often fail to stop the attacks.

Father Christian Okewu Emmanuel, the chancellor for Kaduna Catholic diocese, said Reverend Father Abraham Kunat, a parish priest in Idon Gida village, was abducted from a home he was staying in in another town, after leaving his parish due to insecurity.

Kaduna police spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Reuters, by Garba Muhammad

Video - Is Nigeria's security crisis out of control?

Tuesday, November 8, 2022

Gunmen kidnap dozens in Nigeria, at least 11 killed

Gunmen in Nigeria kidnapped at least 80 people and killed 11 others in separate attacks in the northwest, traditional leaders and residents said on Monday, in the latest attacks by armed gangs that have been preying on villages, schools and highways.

Zamfara state is one of the worst hit by the armed gangs, known locally as bandits, who terrorise and abduct for ransom, adding to growing insecurity ahead of a presidential vote in February.

In the remote village of Masu, in Bukkuyum local government area, bandits kidnapped 50 people, mostly women, families of the victims told Reuters.

Ismail Jinjiri, whose wife was among those taken, said armed men arrived in his village early on Monday, rounded up dozens of women and some men and disappeared into the forest.

Sarkin Fawa Masu, a traditional leader, said "we had over 50 married women being abducted along with quite unknown number of innocent farmers."

Jinjiri and Masu said some women were later released while two men were badly beaten and admitted at Bukkuyum General Hospital. At least 27 remained in captivity, they said.

Bashiru Muawiya Mesudan, the administrator for Bukuyum local government area, said local authorities were still assessing the situation. Zamfara state police spokesman Mohammed Shehu did not respond to calls and texts seeking comment.

In a separate attack, armed men attacked Zonai community in Gusau local government area and abducted at least 20 people working on their farms, the village head Lawali Abdullahi Zonai told Reuters.

Some of the abductees managed to escape, he said.

In Yar Tasha community of Bungudu and Zurmi local government areas, gunmen killed 11 people and abducted at least seven farmers on Sunday, including a district head, residents said.

Reuters

Monday, November 7, 2022

Gunmen release children kidnapped from Nigerian farm

A group of 21 children who were abducted by gunmen last week from a farm in northwestern Nigeria's Katsina state were freed and reunited with their families on Saturday, police said.

Kidnapping has become endemic in recent years in Katsina - the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari - as roving gangs of armed men abduct people from schools, hospitals, roads and farms and demand ransom cash from their relatives.

Three of the captives' parents told Reuters the children, aged between 8 and 14, were released after parents paid a ransom of 1.5 million naira ($3,400), but police spokesman Gambo Isa denied a ransom had been paid.

"They have been reunited with their families," Isa said in a message shared via WhatsApp late on Saturday.

The three parents who spoke to Reuters asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from authorities, who do not approve of ransom payments, or from the bandits themselves.

"They said if we don't pay the ransom between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. yesterday (Saturday) they will move into the deep part of the forest with them and then we will never see them," one father said, adding that some parents had to turn to relatives to help raise their share of the money.

Parents said more than 30 children were kidnapped on Oct. 30 while harvesting crops at a farm located between Kamfanin Mailafiya and Kurmin Doka villages in Katsina, but some managed to escape.

Police and the parents said all the remaining captives were now free.

Reuters, by by Libby George

Thursday, November 3, 2022

Dozens of children kidnapped from farm by Gunmen

Dozens of children were abducted by gunmen from a farm in northern Katsina state and the kidnappers were demanding a ransom for their release, police and residents said on Wednesday.

Katsina is the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari and is among states in northwestern and north central Nigeria where armed gangs on motorbikes have killed people or kidnapped them for ransom from villages and highways.

Police spokesman for Katsina Gambo Isah confirmed the abduction of the children but did not give details.

Residents told Reuters that the children were taken on Sunday while harvesting crops at a farm located between Kamfanin Mailafiya and Kurmin Doka villages in Katsina.

A resident whose son was among those kidnapped said 30 children were abducted but that at least two escaped while another one was released because she was sick.

"Only four of the children are boys, the rest are girls aged below fourteen (years)," said the resident, who declined to be named for safety reasons.

A village head from the area said the gunmen were demanding 30 million naira ($68,435) as ransom. Police records showed that at least 22 children were missing.

The use of underage children as farm labourers is common in some states in northern Nigeria, which has the highest number of children out of school in the country, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

The military has been bombing suspected hideouts of the gunmen, known locally as bandits, as the government seeks to end the attacks that have raised concerns ahead of a general election next February to choose Buhari's successor.

Reuters, by Hamza Ibrahim

Video - Is Nigeria's security crisis out of control?

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Gunmen abduct at least 10 hospital workers in Nigeria's Niger state

Gunmen have abducted at least 10 healthcare workers in Nigeria's Niger state and killed an unspecified number after bandits invaded a general hospital early on Tuesday, a hospital and military source said.

Armed bandits operating for cash have kidnapped or killed hundreds across northwest Nigeria. Niger state officials have said that Islamist militant group Boko Haram had taken over multiple communities in the state, offering villagers money and incorporating them in their ranks to fight the government.

The hospital source said more than 20 staff were kidnapped, including patient relatives, while the security source said two people had been killed after the gunmen invaded the general hospital in Lapai local government in large numbers.

Niger state governor, Sani Bello said a number of people were killed during Tuesday's attack at Gulu General Hospital and unspecified number abducted including medical workers. He did not specify how many had been killed.

Separately, Dr Dare Godiya Ishaya, president of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), told Reuters that 20 NARD members have been kidnapped this year, causing some of them to leave the country partly due to a lack of safety.

By Chijioke Ohuocha

Reuters

Video - Freed schoolboys arrive in Nigeria’s Katsina week after abduction

Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Two kidnapped Chibok girls freed in Nigeria after eight years

Nigerian troops have found two former schoolgirls who were abducted by Boko Haram jihadists eight years ago, the military said Tuesday, freeing some of the last victims of the 2014 Chibok abduction.

The two women each carried babies on their laps as they were presented by the military, after captivity with militants who stormed their school in April, 2014 in northeast Nigeria in a mass kidnapping that sparked international outrage.

Major-General Christopher Musa, the military commander of troops in the region, told reporters the girls were found on June 12 and 14 in two different locations by troops.

"We are very lucky to have been able to recover two of the Chibok girls," Musa said.

Dozens of Boko Haram militants stormed the Chibok girls' boarding school in 2014 and packed 276 pupils, aged 12-17, at the time into trucks in the jihadist group's first mass school abduction.

Fifty-seven of the girls managed to escape by jumping from the trucks shortly after their abduction while 80 were released in exchange for some detained Boko Haram commanders following negotiations with the Nigerian government.

In the recent releases, one of the women, Hauwa Joseph, was found along with other civilians on June 12 around Bama after troops dislodged a Boko Haram camp, while the other, Mary Dauda, was found later outside Ngoshe village in Gwoza district, near the border with Cameroon.

On June 15 the military said on Twitter that they had found one of the Chibok girls named Mary Ngoshe. She turned out to be Mary Dauda.

"I was nine when we were kidnapped from our school in Chibok and I was married off not long ago and had this child," Joseph told reporters at the military headquarters.

Joseph's husband and father-in-law were killed in a military raid and she was left to fend for herself and her 14-month-old son.

"We were abandoned, no one cared to look after us. We were not being fed," she said.

Thousands of Boko Haram fighters and families have been surrendering over the last year, fleeing government bombardments and infighting with the rival group Islamic State West Africa Province.

The conflict has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced 2.2 million more since 2009.

Dauda, who was 18 when she was kidnapped was married at different times to Boko Haram fighters in the group's enclave in the Sambisa forest.

"They would starve and beat you if you refused to pray," Dauda said about life under Boko Haram.

She decided to flee and told her husband she was visiting another Chibok girl in Dutse village near Ngoshe, close to the border with Cameroon.

With the help of an old man who lived outside the village with his family, Dauda trekked all night to Ngoshe where she surrendered to troops in the morning.

"All the remaining Chibok girls have been married with children. I left more than 20 of them in Sambisa, she said. "I'm so happy I'm back."

After the Chibok school mass abduction jihadists carried out several mass abductions and deadly attacks on schools in the northeast.

In 2018, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters kidnapped 110 schoolgirls aged 11–19 years from Government Girls Science and Technical College (GGSTC) Dapchi in neighbouring Yobe state.

All the schoolgirls were released a month later except Leah Sharibu, the only Christian among the girls, who was held by the group for refusing to renounce her faith.

AFP

Friday, May 20, 2022

Kidnappers Of Nigerian College Students Arrested One Year Later

The Nigerian police have arrested two men suspected of being behind the high-profile kidnapping of two dozen students in April 2021 in northwestern Nigeria, and the murder of five of them.

"They have both confessed to the abduction of the students from the University of Greenfield, Kaduna State, and the murder of five students before the payment of ransom and the release of the other students," police spokesman Olumuyiwa Adejobi said in a statement on Wednesday evening.

The two suspects, Aminu Lawal known as "Kano" and Murtala Dawu known as "Mugala", who was involved in several kidnapping cases, will be brought to justice at the end of the investigation, Adejobi said.

In April 2021, gunmen stormed Greenfield University in Kaduna, abducting about 20 students and killing a staff member.

A few days after the attack, the kidnappers executed five hostages to force the families and the authorities to pay a ransom, which was later obtained.

The remaining 14 students were released after 40 days in captivity.

Heavily armed criminal gangs, known as "bandits", have been increasing their attacks in north-western and central Nigeria, looting, kidnapping and killing many villagers.

Last year, the "bandits" particularly targeted schools and universities to kidnap students en masse for ransom from their parents and the authorities.

In all, about 1,500 students were abducted in 2021 by armed men, according to Unicef. While most of the young hostages have since been released for ransom, some still remain in captivity in the forests, where armed groups hide

By Africanews

Relatives of Nigeria Train Attack Victims Oppose Resumption of Railway Service

Families of people kidnapped from a train in Nigeria's Kaduna state two months ago are protesting a decision by authorities to resume service on the railway next week.

Officials of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) said trains would begin running between the capital, Abuja, and Kaduna city again on Monday.

Relatives of kidnapped victims met Thursday morning to protest the planned resumption of train service on the Kaduna-Abuja line.

Authorities suspended service indefinitely on March 28, the day armed men blew up tracks in Kaduna and attacked a train. Nine people were killed during the attack and scores are still missing.

During Thursday's protest, the spokesperson of the group, Abdulfatai Jimoh, said at least 61 people were believed to be held captive, including Jimoh’s wife.

He said the government has been insensitive to the families’ plight.

"Our relatives kidnapped are still in captivity and we want them to be freed first before they can start thinking of that," he said. "We want the NRC management and the Ministry of Transportation to put adequate security measures in place to guarantee the safety of passengers before train services can resume. These are the minimum conditions we require from them."

Idahat Yusuf's two sisters, both in their 50s, are also among the abducted passengers. She does not understand why the NRC would restart train service.

"It's a national pain, it's not only the families' pain, so why would they choose to move on like that?” she asked.

The NRC said the decision to resume operations was not a sign of insensitivity to the situation and said efforts to have the captives released were continuing.

Security experts said negotiations have been deadlocked since the kidnappers demanded that authorities release members of their gang in exchange for the abductees.

Jimoh said the families have been given few details about the talks.

"We have information from government sources that discussions are ongoing with the abductors," he said. "We just don't know the extent or how far they have gone in these negotiations.”

The kidnappers have freed only three abductees, including a pregnant woman who told local news organizations that she was freed out of pity.

Northern Nigeria has seen a wave of kidnappings for ransom over the past 18 months.

This week, police arrested 31 people on charges of abducting students from a school in Kaduna state last year. Authorities also recovered 61 firearms, 376 rounds of ammunition, 22 cartridges and $5,000 cash.

By Timothy Obiezu

VOA

Friday, May 13, 2022

Nigeria: Kidnapped priest dies in captivity

“It is with a heavy heart, but with total submission to the will of God that we announce the death of Rev. Fr. Joseph Aketeh Bako, which sad event took place in the hands of his abductors between 18 – 20 April 2022.”

These words, in a statement released on Wednesday by Fr. Christian Okewu Emmanuel, the Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Kaduna, announced the death of the 48-year-old Nigerian priest.

Abducted in March

Fr. Bako had been kidnapped on 8 March by gunmen from his residence in St. John Catholic Church, Kudenda, where he had been serving as parish priest.

Vatican News had reported the news of the priest’s abduction in March and noted that according to reports, the security guard of the Church was killed during the attack by the gunmen.

In the statement, the chancellor explained that the communication of Fr. Bako’s death was only coming at this time as “the fact of the circumstances leading to his death and the date of the incident have been carefully verified.”

Prayers invited for the peaceful repose of Fr. Bako

The Bishop of the Archdiocese of Kaduna, Most Rev. Matthew Man-Oso Ndagoso has extended his deepest sympathies to the family and the Catholic community of St. John Kudenda, the statement noted.

Christians are also invited to pray for the peaceful repose of the soul of Fr. Bako and for the consolation of the Christians in the Archdiocese of Kaduna.

Details of Fr. Bako’s funeral arrangements will be announced as soon as they are ready, the statement said.

Vatican News

Friday, January 14, 2022

Nigeria rescues 26 people from gunmen in north region

The Nigerian air force said on Thursday its troops rescued 26 people from gunmen on a highway in north Nigeria’s Kaduna state on Wednesday.

Edward Gabkwet, a spokesperson for the air force, said in a statement a team of special forces from the air force came across five abandoned vehicles with their doors open while on a fighting patrol along the Birnin Gwari-Kaduna road in the state, which is “an indication of forced removal or evacuation and a likely kidnap scene”.

“Acting on instincts, the special forces began exploiting the general scene of the abduction and extended it for about three kilometers, well into the bushes while clearing the general area,” Gabkwet said.

“Upon sighting the special forces, three victims suddenly came out of the bushes. Further searching by the troops led to the discovery of four different groups of victims hiding in the bushes,” he said.

“After a thorough search further into the hinterland, a total of 26 victims were rescued,” the spokesperson added.

Gabkwet said the victims were travelling in several vehicles when a large number of bandits in three groups suddenly appeared from the bushes and surrounded their vehicles.

“However, on sighting the special forces, the kidnappers fled into the bushes with a handful of the victims, while the other majority took cover and hid in the bushes until they sighted the special forces,” said Gabkwet.

Armed attacks have been a primary security threat in Nigeria’s northern and central regions, resulting in deaths and kidnappings.

CGTN

Friday, January 7, 2022

Video - Nigeria labels bandit gangs ‘terrorists’ in bid to stem violence

Nigeria's government has labelled criminal gangs as “terrorist” organisations. The gangs are blamed for mass kidnappings. Earlier this week, soldiers rescued 97 hostages, who were abducted more than two months ago. The classification will lead to harsher penalties.

Wednesday, January 5, 2022

Nearly 100 Nigerian hostages rescued after two months of captivity

Nearly 100 hostages, most of them women and children, have been rescued more than two months after they were abducted by armed groups in northwest Nigeria.

Among the 97 freed hostages were 19 babies and more than a dozen children, Ayuba Elkana, police chief in Zamfara state, said on Tuesday.

Mostly barefooted, weary and in worn-out clothes, the ex-captives trickled out of the buses that took them to Gusau, capital of Zamfara state. Women with malnourished-looking babies strapped to their backs trailed behind.

Coming a few days after 21 schoolchildren were freed by security forces, the rescue brought a sigh of relief in Nigeria where armed groups have killed thousands and kidnapped many residents and travellers in exchange for ransoms.

Police said the hostages were “rescued unconditionally” on Monday in joint security operations targeting the camps of armed groups that have been terrorising remote communities across the north-west and centre of Africa’s most populous country.

They had been abducted from their homes and along highways in remote communities in Zamfara and neighbouring Sokoto state.

The hostages had slept on the ground in abandoned forest reserves that serve as hideouts for the gunmen. The first batch of 68 “were in captivity for over three months and they include 33 male adults, seven male children, three female children and 25 women including pregnant/nursing mothers respectively,” Elkana said.

Another set of 29 victims were also rescued “unconditionally” in Kunchin Kalgo forest in the Tsafe local government area of Zamfara, police said.

It is not clear if ransoms were paid for the releases as is usually the case in many remote communities in Nigeria’s troubled north. Authorities have said the hostages’ freedom was the result of military operations including airstrikes.

The large bands of assailants are mostly young men from the Fulani ethnic group, who had traditionally worked as nomadic cattle herders and are caught up in a decades-long conflict with Hausa farming communities over access to water and grazing land.

The Guardian

Friday, October 8, 2021

Nigeria rescues 187 people from kidnappers

Nigerian security agents on Thursday rescued 187 people who had been abducted by armed gangs in the northwestern state of Zamfara, police said, after authorities launched a sweeping security operation against the kidnappers.

Since December last year, Zamfara has been at the centre of often violent kidnappings by heavily armed bandits who have targeted schools, villages and people travelling on highways for ransom.

The government last month shut telecommunication services in Zamfara and other states to disrupt coordination among the gangs.

Mohammed Shehu, the police spokesman for Zamfara, said in a statement that the 187 people, including women and children, had been seized by kidnappers from four local government areas in the state some weeks ago.

"The police and other security agencies have been carrying out assaults on identified bandits locations in different parts of the state with a view to ridding the state of all activities of recalcitrant bandits and other criminal elements," said Shehu.

Pictures and video circulated by police to the media showed some of the people with torn clothes and struggling to sit as they waited to be transported back to their homes.

Armed gangs have grown bolder over time, attacking army outposts, breaking prisoners out of a jail and shooting down an air force jet in July.

Authorities in neighbouring states have complained that bandits driven out of Zamfara have poured into their territories and were causing havoc.

Reporting by Maiduguri newsroom, writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe, editing by Richard Pullin

Reuters

Monday, September 27, 2021

Video - Nigeria children face mental health crises

Eleven years of conflict in northern Nigeria have left hundreds of thousands of children traumatised. Doctors and many other caregivers are concerned about the long-term effects on young children - and the impact on their communities as they grow up. Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris reports from Maiduguri, Nigeria.

After captivity, Nigerian students seek overseas education

Emmanuel Benson was planning to get his diploma in horticulture and landscaping from Nigeria’s Federal College of Forestry Mechanization next year. Now, he’s not willing to risk the return to school, after he was kidnapped by bandits with dozens of others earlier this year.

“Our lives are at risk — Nigerian students, especially in Kaduna state where we are,” the 24-year-old said. As much as he wanted to complete his studies “the kidnapping and everything that is going on haven’t stopped yet ... staying here anymore doesn’t benefit anybody.”

Benson is among a growing group of Nigerian students seeking alternative solutions to their education that won’t further endanger them, as bandits in Nigeria’s northern states grow more ambitious, staging increased kidnappings of students for ransom.

At least 25 Nigerian students who spent nearly two months in the custody of gunmen in the country’s troubled northwest region are now putting resources together in the hopes of leaving the West African nation to study in another country, like the U.S., according to teachers and parents at the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization in the state of Kaduna.

Some of the students, as well as parents and teachers at the Kaduna college, told The Associated Press that after spending about seven weeks in captivity before regaining freedom in May, life hasn’t remained the same. They fear pursuing an education in Nigeria, and they are now relying on the help of a school committee overseeing their application process for overseas education.

There are no clear plans yet on how that enrollment would work out, except that they are hoping for scholarship opportunities in the U.S. or elsewhere.

Nigeria is no longer an option for them because “the country is not safe,” according to Paul Yahaya, one of the 25 students.

Many families in Kaduna state say they now stay mostly indoors over fears of attacks. Ransoms are hefty, and in Nigeria, with a national poverty rate of 40%, parents are struggling.

“Even the parents don’t have money, because they have been struggling to pay their (abducted children’s) ransom and they paid (so) much amount to the negotiators (who helped to secure the release of the children),” said Abdullahi Usman, the chairman of the committee of parents and teachers who is overseeing the application process for interested students.

If the students left, that would mean starting tertiary education afresh and losing at least three years spent so far for some.

The 25 students hoping to leave are among 1,436 students who have been abducted in the last year in Africa’s most populous country, according to Peter Hawkins, the U.N. Children’s Agency Nigeria representative. The education of up to 1.3 million Nigerian children has been affected because of the school abductions, he said.

The Kaduna school and many other schools in at least four states remain closed because of insecurity.

Kauna Daniel wants to leave, despite not having the money to do so or a passport, but is still frightened.

“I don’t want to go anywhere again,” her voice rang out angrily over the phone. She said she hasn’t been able to sleep since she was released from captivity in May because of trauma and an eye problem.

“The trauma we are passing through is getting out of hand and it is even now that everything is getting worse,” the 19-year-old said, adding almost as if she is pleading that “it is better for me to stay at home.”

The United Nations estimates that the country of more than 200 million people already has 10 million children not attending school, one of the highest rates globally, with 1 million more afraid to return to classes as schools reopen in the coming weeks. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated those numbers, according to Save The Children Nigeria, which said 46 million Nigerian students have been affected by school closures as a result of the pandemic.

With the school abductions by groups of gunmen who often camp in abandoned forest reserves across the northwest and central parts of the country, some parents are caught in a dilemma. Should they brave the odds and send their children to schools, which are often located in remote areas, or keep them home, away from the prying eyes of the gunmen?

The Kaduna school committee chairman Usman said parents of affected students in Kaduna are “eager” for their admission to schools abroad because their children “are still vulnerable … and can be kidnapped anytime.”

Friday Sani is one such parent. He said his two daughters spent weeks in captivity along with other students of the Kaduna college, and they now await responses from places outside of Nigeria, mentally unable to return to school in the West African nation.

“The government of Nigeria needs to have a plan to better prepare education systems to respond to crises,” said Badar Musa of Save the Children International, Nigeria. “There is need for increased investment in education systems from both government and international donors.”

By Chinedu Asadu

Gunmen release 10 more Nigerian students after fresh ransom

Gunmen in Nigeria on Sunday freed 10 students abducted in the northwest Kaduna state after collecting a ransom, a school official told The Associated Press.

The Rev. John Hayab said the students were released on Sunday afternoon, nearly three months after they were seized by the gunmen in Kaduna. Their release comes about a week after 10 of their other schoolmates were also released.

Eleven of the 121 students of the Bethel Baptist High School in Kaduna are still being held, Hayab said, expressing frustration at the refusal of the gunmen to release all the students at once.

“If we have the power, we would have brought them,” he told AP when asked why the gunmen held back 11 students. “The bandits are the ones in control, we now have to play along softly and get our children back.”

He was referring to the gunmen who have abducted at least 1,400 schoolchildren in Nigeria in the last year, according to the U.N. children’s agency.

“Our anger is not with the bandits as it is with the government, because we can’t have a government that is supposed to protect us and the bandits are having a field day. There is no day they have ever released one child for free,” the official added.

In the wake of increasing school attacks in the northwest and central parts of Nigeria, some governors have temporarily shut down schools and imposed phone blackouts in their states as they struggle to contain security challenges in Africa’s most populous state.

The first mass school abduction in Nigeria was carried out by the Boko Haram extremist group in 2014. But the West African nation has witnessed more than 10 other attacks on schools in the last year, a sudden spike that authorities have blamed on outnumbered security operatives in remote communities where the affected schools are mostly located.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, who rode to power in 2015 on a wave of goodwill after promising to end the country’s security challenges, has come under growing pressure over the security crisis, especially regarding the gunmen abducting schoolchildren and the Boko Haram extremists.

Security analysts have told the AP the gunmen and the extremists might be working together.

By Chinedu Asadu

Video - Nigeria children face mental health crises

Friday, September 24, 2021

Video - This 25-Year-Old Is One of Nigeria’s Best Hostage Negotiators

The Nigerian government blames ransom payers for this year’s massive spike in kidnappings and accuses them of financing terrorism. But as troops fail to protect civilians, hostage negotiators are the victim's only hope for survival. VICE News follows a 25-year old hostage negotiator as she works to rescue ten hostages in the largest case of her career.

Video - Boko Haram victim recounts time in captivity

Gunmen release 10 Nigerian students after collecting ransom