ALAMBA: Nigerian security forces continued their search efforts in the forests and established roadblocks in the north-west of the country on Sunday, aiming to locate hundreds of abducted schoolchildren. However, observers cautioned that scouring the vast woodland areas might require several weeks.
The abduction of more than 280 children aged between seven and 18 from a school in Kuriga on Thursday marked one of the largest mass kidnappings in recent months in Nigeria’s turbulent north-west. Another 15 children were taken in a separate raid on a school in Sokoto on Saturday.
These incidents are part of a series of group abductions orchestrated by gunmen, with criminal gangs targeting educational institutions, colleges, and highways to demand hefty ransoms. Additionally, over 200 other individuals, predominantly women and children displaced by conflict, were abducted in a separate raid in the north-eastern state of Borno the previous week.
No specific group has claimed responsibility for the school abductions, although militant jihadists operating in the north-east are suspected of involvement in the Borno kidnapping.
Children who managed to escape the kidnappers in Kuriga recounted their harrowing experience after being forcefully taken from their school located in a quiet agrarian village approximately 60 miles outside the north-west city of Kaduna. Armed men in military attire arrived on motorbikes around 8 am on Thursday, disrupting the school routine for its 1,000 students. Abubakar, an 18-year-old secondary school pupil, described being herded into the forest, enduring beatings with horsewhips before managing to flee. He mentioned the separation of girls from boys during the ordeal.
Lawan Yaro, a villager whose five grandchildren were among the abducted, expressed dwindling hopes amidst the region’s prevalent insecurity, remarking on the unprecedented nature of the situation.
According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project, cited by Associated Press, over 3,500 people have been abducted across Nigeria in the past year.
James Barnett, a researcher on West Africa at the US-based Hudson Institute, highlighted the adaptability of criminal gangs in the north-west, emphasizing their increasing entrenchment and extortion activities.
The abduction of over 250 schoolgirls from Chibok in Borno state by Boko Haram militants in April 2014 sparked international outrage, with some of the girls still unaccounted for.
Nigeria’s armed forces are engaged in multiple fronts, combating armed criminal elements in the north-west and addressing the enduring jihadist insurgency in the north-east, which has claimed 40,000 lives and displaced over 2 million people since 2009.
