The gunmen abducted at least 136 students from an Islamic school in the city of Tegina in the state of Niger.
Parents have converged on an Islamic school in the state of Nigeria in Nigeria, and have called on the authorities to intensify efforts to save dozens of students. kidnapped by armed men.
According to the school owner, in the latest school kidnapping that affected northern Nigeria, at least 136 students were confiscated from the Salihu Tanko Islamic school in the city of Tegia.
A Niger State police spokesman said the kidnapping was carried out by “armed bandits aboard motorcycles”. Gunmen fired “indiscriminately and abducted a number of children yet to be determined,” he said, adding that gunmen shot dead one person during the process.
Authorities said “tactical equipment” had been mobilized to rescue the students, while a fighter jet also flew over the area to try to locate the kidnappers and the abductees.
“We want them to do more (the authorities),” said Mohammed Garba, the father of a student who was abducted while waiting for news of his son out of school.
Police confirmed that a large number of students were abducted and one person died, but did not release the exact numbers.
Meanwhile, Niger State Deputy Governor Ahmed Mohammed Ketso ruled out any payment to the kidnappers.
“We do not pay ransom for the kidnappers. We are trying to negotiate to see how we can recover them safely, “Ketso told reporters, adding that police officers have been sent to schools in the region as an intensified security measure.
ABDUCTION: THE GOVERNMENT OF THE STATE OF NIGER TAKES MEASURES TO ENSURE THE SAFE SPEAR OF THE CHILDREN OF THE ISLAMIC SCHOOL OF TEGINA pic.twitter.com/dTDSNx06oM
– Governor Niger (@GovNiger) May 31, 2021
Since December 2020, gangs of so-called bandits seeking lucrative rescue have abducted more than 700 students during raids on boarding schools and other schools in northern Nigeria in various incidents.
Authorities regularly refuse to pay ransom, but experts agree that growing cases of mass abduction of children in the region are the result of a booming Rescue kidnapping criminal company that has become one of the leading in Nigeria security challenges.
“Easy goal”
On Saturday, 14 students from a university in northwestern Nigeria they were released, after spending 40 days in captivity.
“Schools have been targeted throughout the northwest and north-central region of the country because they provide an easy target,” said Ahmed Idris, of Al Jazeera, who reported from the capital, Abuja.
“There is less security there and the attackers have a chance to seize a lot of people,” he added. “They know that negotiating with the government will lead to amnesty or rescue. Many people believe that, despite government denials, a lot of money is being exchanged for the freedom of the abductees.”
According to a report by SB Morgen (SBM) Intelligence, a Lagos-based political risk analysis company, at least $ 18.34 million was paid to the kidnappers as a ransom, mainly by families and the government, between the months June 2011 and March 2020.
The human rights group Save the Children urged the government to intensify its action to prevent the mass abductions of children.
“Now insecurity and attacks on schools have increased children out of school, especially in the northern part of the country,” the group said on Twitter.
“We need the government and security agencies to do everything possible to ensure that children are protected from attack,” he added.
