Kaduna state: In Northwest Nigeria, gunmen kidnap 140 students from a school

A school administrator and police said gunmen kidnapped 140 kids from a boarding school in northern Nigeria on Monday, the latest in a spate of mass abductions targeting schoolchildren and classmates.

Criminal gangs with heavy weapons have long terrorized communities and roads in northwest and central Nigeria, looting, stealing cattle, and kidnapping for ransom, but they have been increasingly targeting schools and universities since the beginning of the year.

Gunmen stormed the Bethel Baptist High School in Kaduna state early Monday, opening fire and overpowering security guards before abducting the majority of the 165 students boarding there overnight, according to authorities.

Parents were waiting for word of their children who had gone missing near the school.

‘This government has failed the people of Kaduna,’ Mustapha Kumbe, father of one of the abducted students told reporters.

‘We will continue to protest until our children are bought back.’

The kidnappers were pursued by tactical police units spokeman claimed. 

Gangs frequently target rural schools and universities, where students live in dorms and security is lax, allowing them to transport large groups of captives to woodland hideouts to negotiate ransom payments.

According to a letter from education officials, Kaduna’s state government ordered the immediate closure of 13 schools considered vulnerable to assaults on Monday.

When the terrorist organization Boko Haram kidnapped almost 300 schoolgirls from a remote school in Chibok, northeast Borno state, in 2014, it sparked the internet #BringBackOurGirls movement.

Six northern states have closed certain public schools as a result of recent kidnappings by gunmen.

The
Baptist church built Bethel Baptist High School in Maramara village,
Chikun district, outside of Kaduna, as a co-educational institution.

Since December, Kaduna state has seen at least four mass school kidnappings.

Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna state, has been one of the most outspoken local leaders, stating categorically that he will not pay the ransom.

According to authorities, the school kidnapping happened just hours after gunmen kidnapped eight medical workers from a Kaduna health center.

Since 2009, his security forces have been fighting a jihadist insurgency in the northeast, which has killed over 40,000 people and displaced over two million more.

The criminal groups, known as bandits in the area, operate out of camps in the enormous Rugu forest, which spans Nigeria’s Zamfara, Katsina, and Kaduna states, as well as neighboring Niger.

The Nigerian air force has targeted bandit camps in the past, while some northern states have attempted to deal with the gangs by providing amnesties in exchange for disarmament.

However, numerous ceasefires have failed, and local discussions have been mostly stymied by Buhari’s administration, which has cautioned that paying the robbers would be counterproductive.