Kaduna kidnapping pushes schoolchildren toll to 2000+ since Chibok

Gunmen kidnapped nearly 300 school pupils in Kaduna state on Thursday, the latest in a spate of school abductions that tops 2000 in the last decade.

Pupils, between the ages of eight and 15, were in the assembly ground at the Local Education Authority School in Kuriga, Chikun local government area, around 08:30 when gunmen on motorcycles attacked, state police spokesperson Mansur Hassan said.

Some 287 pupils and a teacher were kidnapped. It is the biggest mass abduction from a school in Nigeria since July 2021 when gunmen took more than 150 students from another Kaduna school. The students were released months later after they paid ransoms.

What police said

“Students were kidnapped from the school premises on Thursday morning around 8:00 am (local time). About 287 students are still in the hands of the bandits, 100 from the primary side and 187 from the secondary school,” Mr Hassan said, adding that “over 300 students were initially kidnapped, but some were rescued.”

Governor speaks

Kaduna state Governor Uba Sani visited Kuriga and promised to get the students released.

“In my capacity as your elected governor, I am assuring you that by the grace of God, all the children will return unhurt,” he told the community members during his visit.

“Before coming here, I spoke with the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and we are making efforts, the security forces have swung into action, and by God’s grace, we will rescue the children.’’

One parent, Hassan Abdullahi, said his 17 children were amongst those taken.

“Seventeen of the students abducted are my children. I feel very sad that the government has neglected us completely in this area,” Abdullahi told Reuters.

Another parent, Fatima Usman, said two of her children were also kidnapped.

How attack unfolded

Home Economics teacher Sani Abdullahi narrated how the attack happened, according to Punch.

“I resumed school today (Thursday) at exactly 7:47am. I entered the acting principal’s office and signed. All of a sudden, the acting principal asked me to look at my back and when I turned, we discovered that bandits had surrounded the school premises,” he said.

“We became confused. We didn’t know where to go. Then, the bandits asked us to enter the bush, so we obeyed them because there were many and the pupils who were about 700 were following us. So, when we entered the bush, I was lucky to escape alongside many other people.

“So, I returned to the village and reported what happened to the community. So, immediately our vigilante and personnel of KADVS (Kaduna State Vigilante Service) followed the bandits, but the vigilante did not succeed the bandits killed one of the vigilantes; we just buried him a short while ago.”

The teacher explained that the vigilantes were making efforts to identify those kidnapped by the bandits.

“It was when we came back from that pursuit that we briefed the village head and we started making efforts to know the number of pupils and teachers taken away by the bandits.

“At GSS Kuriga, 187 students are presently missing. In the primary school, 125 pupils were initially missing, but, 25 of them escaped and retired home,” he recounted.

According to him, “over 280 pupils and teachers were taken away.”

Past abductions

The abduction raises to more than 2,000 the number of schoolchildren abducted since the infamous 2014 abduction when the jihadist Boko Haram group took 276 schoolgirls from Chibok community. The abduction made global headlines and sparked the #BringBackOurGirls movement and protests.

Since then, more than 1,680 schoolchildren were as of last August, according to the non-profit group, Save the Children.

Data analysis by Save the Children revealed that in addition to the abductions, over 180 schoolchildren were killed and nearly 90 injured in 70 attacks between April 2014 and December 2022, with an estimated 60 school staff kidnapped and 14 killed. Twenty-five school buildings were reportedly destroyed during that period.

The majority of these attacks took place in North-West Nigeria (49 attacks), followed by North-Central Nigeria (11 attacks).

Additional data analysis by Pluboard shows that 20 students were kidnapped in Zamfara state in September and at least six in January in Ekiti state, taking the toll above 2000.

Save the Children said it found that many children were too scared to return to school in the aftermath of attacks, and more needs to be done to prevent attacks and support children and their families.

“Nearly 10 years after the tragic abduction of the Chibok girls made international headlines, more than 90 of them are still held or missing, and countless children and teachers still live under the threat of violence, forcing many to flee or interrupt their education, sometimes forever,” Famari Barro, Country Director at Save the Children Nigeria, said.

“The combination of the trauma and loss of education resulting from these attacks is likely to be lifelong unless children are provided with the means and support to recover from the traumatic events they have been through and are able to return to school. It is vital that children’s lives and right to education are protected through the implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration across the country.”