ABUJA: Ten schoolchildren have been kidnapped in Kaduna State, northwest Nigeria, where criminal organizations have previously carried out several mass abductions of children.
Kaduna’s internal security and home affairs commissioner Samuel Aruwan said Tuesday that the victims, who are students of the Awon Government Secondary School in Kachia district, were abducted on Monday in unclear circumstances.
This was the first known mass abduction of students after a break and since the introduction of the cash swap policy, which was in part brought by the government to end ransom payments to kidnappers.
Aruwan said that the Kaduna State Government had received initial reports from security agencies on the kidnapping of about ten students in Kachia.
Location of schoolchildren’s abduction
He said it was unclear whether the students were abducted from the premises of the school or while travelling to the school, which only operates daytime classes.
He said that the exact location of the abduction is yet to be ascertained, but detailed reports will clarify the incident.
Kaduna is among several states in central and northwest Nigeria terrorized by bandits who raid villages, kidnap or kill residents and burn homes after looting them.
The gangs carry their attacks from camps in a vast forest straddling Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, and Niger states.
Abducted are usually released after ransom payments by their families, and those who fail to find money can be killed and their bodies dumped in the jungle.
Hundreds of students abducted in 2 years
In the last two years, hundreds of students were abducted in mass school kidnappings in the region, including Kaduna.
Almost all the abducted students who spent weeks and months in captivity reached homes after payments.
