More Children Are Abducted From a Nigerian School

UPDATE Mar 9, 2024 3:40 PM CST

Another 15 children were abducted from a school in northwestern Nigeria on Saturday, two days after nearly 300 students were taken hostage from another school in the region. The latest kidnapping happened in the Gidan Bakuso village. Armed men broke into a boarding school and took the children as they slept, police told the AP. A police tactical squad was searching for the students but was hindered by poor roads. "It is a remote village (and) vehicles cannot go there," a spokesman said, adding that the squad "had to use motorcycles to the village." No group has claimed responsibility for the abductions.

Mar 7, 2024 3:55 PM CST

Gunmen attacked a primary school in Nigeria's northwest region on Thursday morning and abducted at least 100 pupils as they were about to start the school day, local residents and authorities told the AP, marking the second mass abduction in the West African nation in less than a week. Abductions of students from schools in northern Nigeria are common and have become a source of concern since 2014 when Islamic extremists kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls in Borno state's Chibok village. In recent years, the abductions have been concentrated in northwestern and central regions, where dozens of armed groups have targeted villagers and travelers for huge ransoms.

Authorities were still trying to confirm the number of pupils abducted in the attack but said it was "far more than 100," according to Salasi Musa, chairman of the Chikun council area in Kaduna state, where the attack happened. The assailants stormed a government primary school in Chikun's Kuriga town shortly after morning assembly at 8am, taking almost 200 pupils hostage before help could come, said Joshua Madami, a local youth leader. Security forces and a government delegation arrived several hours later as a search operation widened, while community members and parents gathered to wait for news. "The government is trying everything possible with the security agencies to see how we can rescue them," said Musa, the council chairman.

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The attack occurred days after more than 200 people, mostly women and children, were abducted by extremists in northeastern Nigeria. Women, children, and students are often targeted in the mass abductions in the conflict-hit northern region, and many victims are released only after paying huge ransoms. Observers say both attacks are a reminder of Nigeria's worsening security crisis, which resulted in the deaths of several hundred people in 2023, according to an AP analysis.

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