At least seven people were killed and 100 kidnapped on Saturday night when gunmen attacked a rural community in Nigeria’s northwestern Katsina state, residents and police said on Sunday, in the latest attack against residents in the north of the country.
State police spokesperson Abubakar Aliyu Sadiq confirmed the attack and the seven deaths, but would not say whether anyone was missing. He said police were investigating.
“The remaining men who did not flee are living in fear … and waiting to hear news about their abducted loved ones,” said Muhammad Sani, whose sister was abducted.
Residents said gunmen on motorbikes arrived in Maidabino village in the Danmusa local government area of Katsina, and started shooting sporadically, forcing residents to flee.
Hassan Aliyu told Reuters news agency by phone that the attack took residents by surprise and dozens of women and children were confirmed missing.
“They killed seven people, including burning two children,” Aliyu said. “They spent more than six hours destroying our properties.”
Auwalu Ismail, another resident, said the gunmen first blocked all roads leading to Maidabino before the attack.
“They burned down our shops, vehicles, and took away our livestock. They also kidnapped my wife and more than 100 women and children,” he said.
In recent years, such abductions have been concentrated in Nigeria’s northwest and central regions, where dozens of armed groups often target villagers and travellers for large ransoms.
In March, gunmen attacked a school in the northwestern state of Kaduna and kidnapped dozens of pupils as they were about to start the schoolday, according to local residents and authorities.
Last year, gunmen took more than 80 students in a raid on a school in the northwestern state of Kebbi.
Monday, June 24, 2024
Seven dead, 100 kidnapped after attack in northern Nigeria
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Video - Gunmen kill 10 people and abduct several others in Nigeria’s Sokoto State
Police authorities confirmed the incident with witnesses saying the gunmen attacked with sophisticated firearms, shooting sporadically into the community.
Wednesday, May 29, 2024
At least 160 kidnapped in hours-long deadly raid in Nigeria
Ten people were killed and 160 others, including children, were abducted during a raid by suspected Boko Haram militants on a remote village in north-central Nigeria, a local official told CNN on Monday.
The attack occurred in Kuchi village, Munya district, in Niger state, beginning at about 5:30 p.m. on Friday and lasting until 4:00 a.m. Saturday, according to district official Aminu Abdulhamid Najume.
Niger state, which borders Nigeria's capital Abuja, has experienced repeated kidnappings for ransom by armed groups, including mass abductions, in recent years.
Najume reported that about 300 gunmen arrived on motorbikes and stayed for several hours, making themselves at home before leaving with the abductees. "They made a fire to curb the cold because it was raining throughout that day," Najume said. "They cooked and made tea; they made Indomie (instant noodles) and spaghetti."
Some of those killed were members of a local vigilante group who confronted the attackers but were overpowered. Najume added that security forces had not yet started rescue operations. "The police visited Kuchi yesterday [Sunday] and left, nothing else."
A spokesperson for the Niger State Police Command did not respond to CNN's request for comment.
"This is not the first or second time Kuchi village has been attacked. This is the fifth time," Najume said, noting that the area frequently suffers from kidnappings for ransom. The kidnappers have not yet made any demands regarding the latest abduction, he said.
Amnesty International said in a post on social media platform X on Sunday that it was "deeply concerned by the abduction," criticizing Nigerian authorities for leaving "rural communities at the mercy of gunmen."
"Since 2021, gunmen have been consistently attacking Kuchi village and raping women and girls in their matrimonial homes," the agency stated.
"The invasion of the village by the gunmen is yet another indication of the Nigerian authorities' utter failure to protect lives," Amnesty added.
Nigeria's security forces have struggled for years to control insurgent groups in the north of the country.
The Kuchi abduction comes two months after 21 people, including a newlywed, were killed when gunmen described locally as 'bandits' stormed a market in Rafi, another affected district in Niger.
At least 137 schoolchildren were kidnapped(opens in a new tab) earlier in March in Niger's neighbouring Kaduna state but were later released after the kidnappers made an initial demand of 1 billion naira (over US$675,000) and threatened to kill them all if their demands were not met.
By Nimi Princewill, CNN
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Some of those rescued were kidnapped 10 years ago. Most of the victims were women and children.
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Police rescue kidnap victims in Abuja
The Police Command in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) said its operatives on Sunday foiled a kidnap attempt and rescued victims in Dawaki area of Abuja.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the FCT, Josephine Adeh, a superintendent of police, said this in a statement on Monday in Abuja.
Ms Adeh said that the kidnap attempt was foiled following an immediate and strategic response to a distress call on the attack by unknown gunmen in Dawaki on 19 May.
She said the Commissioner of Police (CP) in charge of the FCT, Benneth Igweh, led the operatives that swiftly mobilised to the scene to foil the kidnap attempt.
“Displaying remarkable bravery and coordination, the police, in synergy with local hunters, advanced on the assailants, tactically ambushed them at Ushafa Hill via Bwari and Shishipe Hills via Mpape.
“This led to a fierce gun duel where the hoodlums were overwhelmed by the firepower of the operatives, and this forced them to scamper to safety with various degrees of bullet injuries and the victims were rescued,” she said.
Ms Adeh added that one of the rescued victims was currently in the hospital receiving medical attention.
The FCT Police command spokesperson said that the CP had reaffirmed the command’s steadfast dedication to maintaining peace and security in the FCT.
She also said that search operations were ongoing to rescue other hostages who fled the scene during the shootout.
Meanwhile, the Chairperson of Dawaki Rock Heaven Community, Tunde Abdulrahim, said the incident happened at about 7: 30 p.m. on Sunday.
Mr Abdulrahim said that the heavily armed bandits numbering about 50, consisting of men and women invaded the community and broke into about six houses.
He also said that about 20 people were abducted by the kidnappers.
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Monday, May 20, 2024
386 civilians rescued from Sambisa forest in Nigeria 10 years after abduction
No fewer than 386 people, mostly women and children, have been rescued by the Army in Sambisa forest ten years after their abduction.
The acting GOC 7 Division, AGL Haruna, made this known while speaking to newsmen at the outskirts of Sambisa forest in Konduga LGA after welcoming the troops that conducted the 10-day operation.
Mr Haruna, a brigadier general, said the operation tagged “Operation Desert Sanity 111” was to clear Sambisa forest of the remnants of all categories of terrorists as well as provide some of them eager to surrender as observed the opportunity to do so.
“Our effort is to ensure that we clear remnants of terrorists in the Sambisa and give those willing to surrender the opportunity to surrender.
“With this operation, we envisage many of them will surrender as they have started.
“We also rescued some civilians; as of yesterday, we rescued 386 and I am sure the number will increase by today,” Haruna said.
The GOC, who addressed the troops on the message of Chief of Army Staff, lauded their performance and professionalism exhibited during the operation and urged them to sustain the tempo.
Some of those rescued from Sambisa forest, who spoke, said they were in captivity for 10 years.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that troops from 21 Special Armoured Brigade, 26 Task Force Brigade, and 199 Special Forces participated in the operation.
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14 kidnapped University students rescued
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Gunmen kidnap 9 students in Nigeria
At least nine students have been abducted by gunmen during a late-night raid on their school in northern Nigeria’s Kogi state, authorities said Friday, the third such abduction amid rampant kidnappings targeting schools in the conflict-hit region this year.
The assailants invaded the Confluence University of Science and Technology in Kogi state, which neighbors the nation’s capital, Abuja, and whisked away the students from their classrooms before security forces could arrive, according to Kogi Commissioner for Information Kingsley Femi Fanwo.
The state has “activated the security architecture to track the kidnappers and ensure the abducted students are rescued and the abductors apprehended,” Fanwo added.
The official said local hunters were helping security forces in “combing” the school area, which is surrounded by bushes in the remote Osara town.
Nigeria has struggled with several mass school kidnappings since the first such incident in 2014 when Islamic extremists abducted more than 200 schoolgirls from the northeastern Chibok village, sparking the global #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign.
A t least 1,400 Nigerian students have since been abducted from their schools in similar circumstances, including at least 130 children abducted from their school in Kuriga town in the northern Kaduna state in March. Some are still held captive, including nearly 100 of the Chibok girls.
By Chinedu Asadu, AP
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Monday, May 13, 2024
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The incident marks the latest mass kidnapping incident in the northwestern state of Zamfara. A district head and residents said on Saturday that three villages were targeted in the Friday night raids.
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14 kidnapped University students rescued
Fourteen students of Confluence University of Science and Technology (CUSTECH), Osara in Kogi State, abducted by bandits on Thursday night, have been rescued
Bethrand Onuoha, the commissioner of police in the North-central State, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lokoja.
The CUSTECH students had been abducted by the bandits who invaded the institution while they were reading for their first semester examination slated to commence 13 May .
“A combined team of security operatives, including local hunters, who ran after the bandits, successfully rescued 14 of the kidnapped students.
“One of the rescued students told us that 24 students were captured.
“The security operatives will not relent. We are determined to get the remaining students back alive and unhurt,” Onuoha said.
Kingsley Fanwo, the commissioner for information, who also confirmed the rescue, said the 14 students were getting the required attention.
He expressed joy that the rescue came hours after Gov Usman Ododo visited the institution and assured parents of his readiness to rescue everyone taken.
“Our local vigilante men and security agents engaged the kidnappers in a fierce shootout and the kidnappers fled. Some escaped with gun wounds.
“They fled and left the kidnapped students who also ran in different directions to avoid being caught up in the fire exchange.
“Many of the students kidnapped, and even other people in captivity, have been rescued and taken to medical facilities for proper attention.
“Some were rescued in the early hours of today.
“The security agents are currently combing the forests to ensure that all the kidnapped students are found and brought home safely.
“It is unfortunate, however, that in the sporadic gun battle to rescue the students, a local hunter and a security operative sustained injuries. They are currently receiving medical attention,” he said.
The commissioner, however, commended the local hunters and the conventional security agents for their bravery and gallantry.
According to him, the success recorded so far was made possible by the support of Ododo who is bent on securing every Kogi resident.
He urged residents to report anyone with gun wounds to law enforcement agents.
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Monday, April 22, 2024
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Nigerian President Tinubu says ransoms will no longer be paid to kidnappers who have made the crime a business in the West African nation. He made the declaration during the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the kidnapping of 276 school girls from the town of Chibok in the country's northern region.
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Woman rescued 10 years after kidnap by Boko Haram in Nigeria
Lydia Simon was rescued in Gwoza council area, about 95 miles (150km) east of Chibok, from where 276 schoolgirls were seized in April 2014. As many as 82 are still missing a decade after the high-profile mass kidnapping.
Announcing the news on Thursday, the Nigerian army did not give details of the rescue other than to say Simon was found in the community of Ngoshe.
Chibok and Ngoshe are in Borno state, birthplace of the 15-year old insurgency that has since spread to neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, uprooting about 2 million people across the region.
The army statement said Simon was five months pregnant. It was accompanied by a picture of her and her three children born in captivity, who appear to be between the ages of two and four. She has yet to be reunited with her family.
The Chibok abduction was the first of a series of mass school kidnappings in Nigeria, shocking the world and triggering a global social media campaign tagged #BringBackOurGirls. Ten years on, many of the abductees, now adults, have been freed or escaped, but jihadist groups and bandits continue to target schools for mass abductions.
Since the Chibok attack, more than 2,190 students have been kidnapped, according to the Lagos-based geopolitical risk consultancy SBM Intelligence. It said mass abductions had become “an increasingly favourite sport for Nigeria’s teeming armed groups”.
As many as 57 of the women from Chibok escaped in the hours after their kidnapping by jumping off the trucks used to abduct them. In May 2017, 82 others were released after the government reportedly paid million-dollar ransoms. Those who returned in recent years were mostly found abandoned in the forests.
Some Chibok parents and security analysts have said there is little evidence to show there is a special military operation to free the remaining women. It is not known if they are all still alive.
Some of the recently freed women were either raped by the insurgents or forced into marriages, according to Chioma Agwuegbo, an activist who was part of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.
“We have heard their stories about the amount of trauma and violence they have faced. Somebody who was kidnapped 10 years ago is not returning as the same person,” Agwuegbo told Associated Press.
The cause has largely been forgotten by many of the politicians and celebrities who championed it. On 14 April, the anniversary of the abduction, the local activist collective that began the campaign and held rallies for years in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, said it was still seeking justice for the missing women after “this decade of shame”.
Simon’s rescue was symbolic of the enduring hope that pervaded her home town, said the Abuja-based analyst Idayat Hassan, a non-resident fellow with the Africa programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
“It’s symbolic that 10 years after, we still got another of the girls,” Hassan said. “It keeps our hope alive.”
Simon’s family are waiting to be reunited with their long-lost relative, as are the villagers of Chibok.
“The government has not told us anything [and] we are waiting for an official call,” said Yakubu Nkeki, the chair of the Chibok girls’ parents’ association.
By Eromo Egbejule, The Guardian
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About 90 girls kidnapped from a government secondary school in Chibok, in Nigeria’s Borno State in 2014 remain missing. A total of 276 girls were taken. Many abductees have returned home and are trying to resume normal life. However, relatives of the girls still missing anxiously wait and hope for a reunion with their kin.
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Farmers in northern Nigeria have abandoned their commercial farms and turned to small-scale subsistence farming close to their homes to avoid being the victims of kidnapping. Insecurity in the region is an issue. Kidnappings for ransom are increasingly common.
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23 university students,staff released in Nigeria seven months after abduction
Security agents on Sunday announced the rescue of 23 students and workers kidnapped in September at the Federal University Gusau in Zamfara State, North-west Nigeria.
Security sources said they were rescued by security agents near Kuncin Dutse, a village in Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara. The Coordinator of the National Counter-terrorism Centre, Adamu Laka, a major general, reportedly coordinated the operation.
PREMIUM TIMES they were further gathered that the rescued persons had been handed over to the security authorities in Abuja. Mr Laka is expected to present them to the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, on Monday.
The victims were evacuated to Abuja for debriefing and medical check-ups before being reunited with their families, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.
Earlier last month, nine of the female students were released after 178 days in captivity.
The 23 persons released in the latest development include 15 students and eight workers of the university. A woman abducted in Funtua in Katsina State was also rescued, a source told PREMIUM TIMES, asking for confidentiality because he was not invited to address the press.
One of the parents of the abducted students also confirmed the release of her daughter to DW Hausa Service late Sunday. She said her daughter called her and informed her that she was being moved to Gusau, the state capital.
The released students spent over 200 days in the terrorists’ camp following their abduction in September at their off-campus hostel in Sabon Gida, a community adjacent to the university campus in the state capital.
Some of the victims were rescued by security officials a few hours after their abduction. It was not immediately clear whether more or how many of the students were still being held by the terrorists.
The Zamfara State government is yet to speak on the latest release of the students.
The spokesperson for the Federal University, Gusau, Umar Usman, said he was yet to be briefed about the development when our reporter asked for his comments.
By Abubakar Ahmadu Maishanu, Premium Times
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BWARI, Nigeria — "They pointed their guns through the window of the children's room while they were sleeping," says the 49-year-old father of four sons, describing the beginning of a three-month ordeal that has overwhelmed his family. "Then they told them to open the door or they will shoot them."
In early January, around midnight, 20 men armed with AK-47s and machetes attacked his home in Bwari, a small town surrounded by outcrops of towering granite rocks and forest, on the hilly outskirts of Nigeria's capital Abuja.
The attackers dragged him and his four sons, ranging in age from 12 to 24 years old, outside. The armed men beat them with the back of their guns and the flat edge of their blades. They tied their wrists with rope and marched them barefoot into the surrounding forest, along with 17 other abducted victims. They walked for almost 10 hours, their feet bloodied by the time they reached a hideout in northwest Nigeria.
They were held within an expanse of forests that stretches over the border into Niger, an expanse that has become a haven for hundreds of heavily armed groups. Most of the groups, referred to locally as bandits, are behind an epidemic of mass kidnap-for-ransom attacks that have proliferated across Africa's most populous country, rising during one of the toughest economic periods in decades.
This is the tale of one family that has been left deeply traumatized by the kidnapping epidemic in Nigeria. NPR has followed their story for months, but is not using the family's names because they continue to live under the constant threat of the kidnappers, whose presence haunts their lives.
Kidnapping epidemic
Close to 1,000 people have been kidnapped in Nigeria in the first three months of 2024 alone, amid an epidemic of attacks that has become the country's most potent security threat.
Many of the kidnaps have been committed by groups called "bandits," of which 3,000 to 5,000 are believed to be active, operating from forests in north and central Nigeria, according to security analysts.
Many of the groups are made up of ethnic Fulani young men and boys, who've become heavily armed in the wake of a historic conflict over land between Fulani nomadic pastoralists and farmers.
The groups have exploited several systemic security failings in Nigeria, including the scarcity of rural police and alleged corruption preventing security forces from being adequately armed. In recent years, armed groups have operated closer and closer to Abuja. Bwari, a satellite town 37 miles from the capital, has been overwhelmed by kidnap attacks for the last year, a sign of the growing nature of the problem.
The rise in Nigeria of mass abductions of dozens to hundreds of people, especially children, is often traced to the kidnapping by Islamist militants Boko Haram of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok town in April 2014. Boko Haram began as a religious movement but quickly developed into a brutal jihadist organization. Loosely translated from the local language Hausa, Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden."
The attack sparked a global campaign for their release. Many of the girls were freed in exchange for the release of Boko Haram suspects from prison. According to some reports, ransoms were also paid by the government but officials have strongly denied this. Ninety-six of the girls are still missing, presumed still captive.
The international attention the Boko Haram kidnapping attracted led prominent U.S. figures like Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton, then the secretary of state, to call for their release. It put pressure on the Nigerian government to secure their freedom. But it also inspired several other mass abductions across northern Nigeria since then to the present day.
A life in exchange for bags of rice and beans
After the family in Bwari was kidnapped in January, the father was released in a matter of days. He was released on condition that he would raise the ransom of 5.3 million naira ($3,500), three times what the family earns in a year.
"They would beat the children and put them on the phone to talk to me and the children would be crying and begging me to bring the money quickly, that they're suffering," the father recalls.
He borrowed money and sold almost all of his possessions, his farm in Bwari, his tractor, and the bags of ginger root he'd harvested. Within a month, he'd raised the ransom for his four boys.
He delivered it in cash, stored in a hard plastic zipper bag. He handed the ransom over to armed men at a drop-off point just off an expressway in the northwestern state of Kaduna. They assured him that his boys would soon be sent back to him.
But the next day, only two of his sons were freed, leaving the eldest and youngest in captivity.
Then the kidnappers made new demands: two motorbikes, five walkie-talkies, bags of rice and beans, top-up cards for mobile data and airtime, and industrial glues, often inhaled and used as intoxicants. The items would cost a further $2,000.
"I said, how do you expect me to find the money when I've already sold everything?" the father recalls. "They said if I don't bring those items soon, they will kill the boys."
A town living under constant threat
Much of Bwari town is on edge. In the day, business continues as normal, but after sunset, the streets swiftly empty. A military tank is stationed near the main market, and police patrols wade through the town's streets.
"If you ask 10 people if they've been affected, maybe five will say yes," says 38-year-old Sanusi Musa, a truck driver in Bwari. His relatives were kidnapped late last year, then released a few months afterward when a ransom was paid by the father.
Many, like Musa, are fed up with the attacks and lament that insecurity is directly driven by a lack of development in poor, rural parts of the country. Musa's family was abducted alongside other victims from Kau, one of several villages within Bwari. A battered mud road runs six miles through remote countryside and forest, connecting the village to the nearest police and military post in the center of town. By car, the journey is a crawl that can take more than an hour, leaving the villages along it exposed.
"When the kidnappers came, we called the army," says Alhaji Yusuf, a community leader in Kau whose relatives were also abducted in December. "But they said it would take them too long to arrive because the road is bad. We're also begging the government to establish a police station in the village. We will even provide the land."
"Teach them a lesson"
A month after the father from Bwari received the kidnappers' new demands, the family managed to raise most of the additional $2,000 they needed. They pleaded with the kidnappers to accept what they'd managed to put together, including the two motorbikes and some of the food items, and the kidnappers agreed.
But they only released the eldest son. Then they made fresh demands, for $500 in cash and other items.
Weeks after the eldest son was freed and forced to leave his youngest brother behind, he sits at home wearing a beige caftan. Before he was released, he says, the kidnappers wanted to send his family a message.
He recalls the moment during his ordeal when he, his youngest brother and three other boys abducted alongside them were taken to a nearby river in the forest.
But when they arrived, they were lined up along the riverbank. One of the boys was pulled to the side.
"The leader said the boy's parents weren't taking them seriously," the eldest son recalls, "so he would teach them a lesson."
Then one of the kidnappers shot the boy.
The boy pleaded for his life. "The boy was telling him 'sorry, sorry, they will bring your money, they will bring your motorcycle and phones.'"
But they shot him again.
The kidnappers ordered the other boys to dig a grave in the sandy soil by the riverbank. The victim, drenched in blood, was still alive, barely moving.
They laid him in the shallow grave and covered him with sand. Then one of the kidnappers stood over him and delivered the final, fatal shot.
"They told me to tell my parents that if they didn't bring the items they told them, they would kill my brother too," the eldest son says.
Released but not free
In mid-March, 2 1/2 months after the family's abduction, the 12-year-old, the youngest son, finally came home. He and other hostages escaped after a Nigerian military patrol arrived near the kidnappers' hideout, sending the militants fleeing. During the confusion, the hostages made their escape.
They trekked for days until they reached a village.
"The people saw how he looked and took pity on him. They fed him, bathed him and paid for the transport that brought him back to us," the father says, describing the conflicting moments of joy and anguish when the last of his children returned.
The 12-year-old came home bruised across his body and far thinner than in January. Now he barely speaks or looks at anyone in the eye.
Freedom has come at immense cost for the entire family.
"I've sold everything I have," the father says. "I don't have any work, I can't pay my children's school fees. All I can do is pray and rely on Allah."
The attack has also made them retreat from their community in Bwari, unsure of whom to trust. During the abduction, one of the armed men covered his face, leading the family to believe he was someone they knew, as the kidnappers knew intimate details about their lives.
"It has reached a stage where you don't even know who to trust anymore, because you don't know who is your enemy and who is not," the father says.
And despite their freedom from captivity, the torment goes on. The youngest son's escape made the kidnappers angry, his eldest brother says. The kidnappers still call the family and demand the ransom they were denied, or else they will strike again.
"So I have been released," says the eldest son, "but I'm not really free."
By Emmanuel Akinwotu, npr
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“It makes me so angry to talk about it,” said Zanna, 55, whose daughter is among the nearly 100 girls still missing after the 2014 kidnappings that stunned the world and sparked the global #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign.
The Chibok kidnapping was the first major school abduction in the West African nation. Since then, at least 1,400 students have been kidnapped, especially in the conflict-battered northwest and central regions. Most victims were freed only after ransoms were paid or through government-backed deals, but the suspects rarely get arrested.
This year, to mark the 10th anniversary of a largely forgotten tragedy, members of Borno state’s Chibok community gathered Thursday in Nigeria’s economic hub of Lagos to attend the screening of “Statues Also Breathe,” a collaborative film project produced by French artist Prune Nourry and Nigeria’s Obafemi Awolowo University.
“This collaboration aims to raise awareness about the plight of the girls who are still missing while highlighting the global struggle for girls’ education,” Nourry said.
The 17-minute film opens with an aerial view of 108 sculptures — the number of girls still missing when the art project began — that try to recreate what the girls look like today using pictures provided by their families, from their facial expressions to hairstyles and visible patterns.
The film captures the artistic process behind the art exhibit, first displayed in November 2022, featuring human head-sized sculptures inspired by ancient Nigerian Ife terracotta heads.
In the film, one of the freed women talks about the horrors she went through while in captivity. “We suffered, we were beaten up. (But) Allah (God) made me stronger,” she said.
It also conveys a flurry of emotions as heartbroken mothers reminisced about life when their daughters were home.
“When it is time for Ramadan (...) Aisha adorns my hair with henna and all sorts of adornments,” one of the women in the film said of her missing child.
But Aisha has not been home in 10 years.
Another scene shows a woman hesitating when asked to go and see her daughter’s face that was sculpted. “If I go and see it, it will bring sad memories,” she said, her weak voice fading away.
Nigerian authorities have not done enough to free the remaining women and those who have regained their freedom have not been properly taken care of, according to Chioma Agwuegbo, an activist who was part of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.
“We have normalized the absurd in Nigeria,” Agwuegbo said of the school kidnappings in Nigeria. “10 years on, it is an indictment not just on the government but on our security forces and even on the citizens themselves.”
Analysts worry that the security lapses that resulted in the Chibok kidnapping remain in place in many schools. A recent survey by the United Nations children’s agency’s Nigeria office found that only 43% of minimum safety standards are met in over 6,000 surveyed schools.
According to Nnamdi Obasi, senior adviser for Nigeria at the International Crisis Group, “the basic security and safety arrangements in schools are weak and sometimes non-existent,” adding that military and police personnel are still “very much inadequate and overstretched.”
Authorities rarely provide updates on efforts to free the Chibok women. However, some of the freed women have said in the past that those still missing have been forcefully married to the extremists, as is often the case with female kidnap victims.
About a dozen of the Chibok women managed to escape captivity since early 2022. They all returned with children.
“I think we shouldn’t even think about them anymore,” said one of the Chibok mothers in the film. “I feel like they are already gone.”
By Chinedu Asadu, AP
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