Gunmen in Nigeria kidnapped more than 200 schoolchildren in the northern city of Kuriga on Thursday, a teacher, a local councilor and parents of the missing children said, in the largest mass abduction from a school since 2021.
Police in Kaduna State did not respond to requests for comment on the abductions, which took place shortly after the morning meeting at the Local Government Education Authority School in Kuriga town.
“The number of those kidnapped in the secondary section based on the statistics we collected together with parents is 187, while that in the primary section is 40 for now,” said Sani Abdullahi, a home economics teacher.
Kuriga local councilor Idris Maiallura said he was at the school and said the gunmen initially took 100 primary school students but later released them while others escaped.
Parents and residents attributed the kidnapping to the lack of security in the area.
Kaduna state governor Uba Sani visited Kuriga and promised to release the students, his office said, but did not say exactly how many were missing.
Amnesty International called on Nigerian authorities to safely rescue the students and hold those responsible to account.
“We don’t know what to do, we are all waiting to see what God can do. They are my only children I have on Earth,” Fatima Usman, mother of two students who were among those kidnapped, told Reuters by phone.
Another father, Hassan Abdullahi, said local vigilantes tried to repel the armed men but were overpowered.
“Seventeen of the kidnapped students are my children. I feel very sad because the government has completely neglected us in this area,” Abdullahi said.
Kidnappings by armed men have become common in northern Nigeria, disrupting daily life and preventing thousands of children from attending school.
The last reported major abduction involving schoolchildren in Kaduna occurred in July 2021, when gunmen took more than 150 students in an operation. The students were reunited months later with their families after paying ransoms.
Source: CNN Brasil
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