Security forces continue to search for 317 girls who were abducted on Friday, just a day before an armed gang released 27 teenage boys who had been abducted from their school in the northern state of Niger last week.
Schools have become the target of mass kidnappings of rapists in northern Nigeria by armed groups, many of whom carry weapons and bicycles.
On February 17, gunmen killed a boy and kidnapped 42 people – 27 students, three employees and 12 members of their families – in an attack on the State University of Science in Kagara district of Niger, which overwhelmed the school’s security details.
After their release, the boys were seen by a Reuters witness walking with armed security through a dusty village, some struggling to stand and asking for water. A government official said the boys were between 15 and 18 years old.
“The abducted students, staff and relatives of the Science Collage Kagara government have regained their liberty and have been received by the Government of the Niger State,” Governor Abubakar Sani Bello said in a tweet.
The release of the schoolboys comes just a day after attackers kidnapped more than 300 girls in a school raid in the state of Zamfara.
The school dormitory after more than 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped by bandits in Jangede, Zamfara State, northwestern Nigeria, February 26, 2021. (Photo by Habibu ILIYASU / AFP)
The recent abductions have raised concerns about increased violence from armed gangs and insurgency. Boko Haram is carrying out abductions in Nigeria’s turbulent northeast, as well as a branch of Daesh.
The unrest has become a political problem for President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired general and former military leader who in recent months has been increasingly criticized for high-profile attacks by gangs known locally as “bandits”.
Buhari replaced his longtime military chiefs this month amid escalating violence in Nigeria.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari watches as he holds a press conference during his official state visit to Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa, October 3, 2019. (Photo by Phill Magakoe / AFP)
In December, gunmen looted a school in the northwestern state of Katsina where they were abducted and later released more than 300 schoolboys.
Violence and insecurity have exacerbated the economic challenges facing the citizens of Africa’s most populous country and top oil exporter, who are struggling to cope with declining revenues due to a fall in crude prices in addition to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The most prominent school kidnapping was that of more than 270 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram from the city of Chibok in 2014. About 100 of them remain missing.
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