Violence is rising.Elementary school students and teachers were abducted by gunmen on Monday in the Nigerian state of Kaduna, according to a government official.
The country has struggled with such abductions at school for four months. A total of five abductions have taken place in the country in recent months, as violent crime is on the rise.
Kaduna State Security Commissioner Samuel Aruwan said on Monday that the state government had received reports of kidnappings of students and teachers in the Birnin Gwari local area.
“Kaduna’s state government is currently receiving information on the actual number of students and teachers reported abducted and will issue a comprehensive statement as soon as possible,” Aruwan said in a statement.
The trend of abductions from boarding schools was started by the jihadist group Boko Haram, which in 2014 seized 270 girls from a school in Chibok in the northeastern country. About 100 of them have never been found. Armed criminal gangs seeking the ransom have since carried out copycat attacks.
The city is the capital of the state of Kaduna, part of a region where banditry has been partying for several years. The Nigerian federal government has said it would “remove” the abduction after criticizing local business to free victims.
Referring to the latest attack, Sarkin Mota, a resident, told Reuters that his son was among those abducted, as were three of his teachers.
“(They) were kidnapped early in the morning when the teachers and students came to the school,” Mota said. “We are in a state of panic,” he said, referring to other parents when they received the news.
Gunmen tried to kidnap more students in Kaduna State overnight on Sunday, as 39 others from a previous attack in the state are still missing.
Attempts by the military and police to deal with the gangs have been unsuccessful, with many worrying that government agencies will exacerbate the situation by allowing the kidnappers to go unpunished, pay them or provide incentives.
The unrest has become a political problem for Buhari, a retired general and former military leader who has faced growing criticism of the rise in violent crime and replaced his longtime military chiefs earlier this year.
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