According to AFP news, witnesses reported that armed men raided a school in northern Nigeria on Tuesday night, abducting hundreds of students and scores of teachers. The incident ignited surging levels of unrest as residents became concerned over increasing levels of insecurity.
The Ambush
“Bandits entered the government college in Kagara last night and kidnapped hundreds of students and several teachers,” said a local official who requested to remain anonymous.
According to witnesses, very many men dressed in military uniforms launched the attack that night and forcefully took students to the forest. The Secondary school, which was an institution to approximately 1000 students, now remains close to empty. Meanwhile, the exact number of teenagers missing remains unknown.
Amid the ambush, one of the staff and some of the students managed to escape. However, while fleeing, one student got shot. The recent incident comes two months after rebel groups kidnapped 344 teenagers from a neighboring boarding school in Katsina State. They freed the students a week later after reaching a consensus with the authorities of Katsina and Zamfara.
Nevertheless, a count is underway to establish the exact number of students who were abducted. The school administration hopes that the students who fled amid the attack would return to the institution for the count.
Why Abductions?
The surging cases of insurgencies and abductions in Nigeria have attracted concerns from many. According to reports, the common groups perpetrating such acts are bandits, and in most cases, they do so for ransom and looting. These criminal gangs are motivated by greed and desire to kill, torture and torment. They are trained to be hard-headed hence full of resilience. Some of them carry out atrocities because of being misguided.
For instance, during December last year, the group responsible for kidnapping 344 students from Kankara were jihadists accomplices. After watching a Boko Haram militia video, it was clear Boko Haram insurgents sent the rebels. Boko Haram is a potent militia group in Nigeria. Their stronghold is hundreds of kilometers away from northeastern Nigeria. They are infamous for attacking rural communities in the region and demanding ransom in exchange for their lives.
Often when Boko Haram conducts a raid, they set houses ablaze, steal livestock, kill families and even take control of the region, rendering communities homeless. The increasing number of refugees in Nigeria and neighboring countries is because of the constant rebel attacks.
Amnesty International, UN, Human rights watchdog, and other concerned organizations have all been working together to end West Africa’s militia attacks. When Boko Haram admitted to kidnapping the 344 scholars, people from all over the globe reacted. Many were concerned, especially as it rekindled memories of the 2014 incident when Boko Haram kidnapped over 200 girls from Chibok in northeastern Nigeria.
The 344 gained back their freedom after a rebel-government deal. That confirms that the insurgents also abduct to lure state officials into meeting their demands, which in most cases are unlawful. On 9th February this year, Awwalun Daudawa surrendered to the authorities in exchange for an amnesty deal.
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