AP
JOHANNESBURG — Nigerian security forces are searching for more than 200 children abducted from their school by gunmen on motorcycles Thursday, in the latest mass kidnapping to hit Nigeria.
Officials and witnesses have given varying figures of the number of students taken from the school in Kuriga, a town in northwestern Nigeria, with between 200 and 300 children reported to be missing, some of them as young as 8 years old.
It was the second such abduction in Nigeria in a week, after around another 200 people — mainly women and children — were kidnapped by militants in Borno state in the country’s northeast.
If the higher total this week is confirmed, it could surpass the mass abduction in 2014 when Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from their dormitory in the village of Chibok.
The West African nation has been struggling to contain the kidnapping epidemic for a number of years now. More than 3,600 people were abducted between July 2022 and June 2023, according to Nigeria based SBM Intelligence group. But the actual number could be far higher, as many people do not report kidnappings for fear of reprisals.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who was elected last year after running a campaign promising to end insecurity and kidnapping in Nigeria, condemned this week’s two abductions in a statement Friday.
“The president directs security and intelligence agencies to immediately rescue the victims and ensure that justice is served against the perpetrators of these abominable acts,” the statement said.
Uba Sani, the governor of Kaduna state, which includes Kuriga, said one person had been killed during the raid on the school on Thursday.
While no group has claimed responsibility for the raid, criminal gangs are usually responsible for kidnappings in the northwest, experts say. Islamist group Boko Haram, operates mainly in the northeast.
AP
The Chibok kidnappings sparked a global outcry and the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. However, while some have since been released, many others remain in captivity as the 10th anniversary of the April 2014 abductions approaches.
Nigeria, with one of Africa’s largest economies and its biggest population, with large…
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