– We don’t know what to do, other than to believe in God, says Rashidat Hamza to the Ap news agency. She is the mother of six children. Now five of them are gone, and she has no idea what will happen to them. Her children are among the 287 Nigerian children who were kidnapped when armed men attacked one early morning last week. – Some strong children managed to escape. Smaller children cried and were pushed and forced to follow the kidnappers. The distraught mother tells what eyewitnesses have told her. Her five missing children range from seven to 18 years old. QUIET: The school garden in Kuriga in Nigeria. Photo: HAIDAR UMAR / AFP The kidnappings in the state of Kaduna, north of the capital Abuja, did not come completely out of the blue. Armed Islamist groups have been wreaking havoc for a long time and have made kidnapping a business. They take people by force and want money to release them again. – They came suddenly Now it is completely quiet in the school yard in Kuriga in Nigeria. The play equipment is empty, the shock has not completely subsided yet. Out of a door in the red brick school building comes a sad and serious vice-principal, Nura Ahmad. HEAD OF SCHOOL: Vice-principal Nura Ahmad. Photo: Sunday Alamba / AP – They came suddenly, on motorbikes and they shot around, says the vice-chancellor. – They surrounded the school and blocked all escape routes out of the school yard, he claims. Hiding Desperate parents despair after what has happened. – My brain is about to be blown to pieces. I can’t do anything because I’m constantly thinking about how the children are doing, says Shehu Lawal, who is the father of one of the abducted children. FATHER: Shehu Lawal is upset and despondent after the kidnappings last week. Photo: AP – My wife and I haven’t been able to get any sleep, he says. In the chaos that ensued, a few managed to hide. Aminu Abdullahi tells how he escaped. – When the bandits came on motorbikes and started screaming and shooting, the pupils ran in all directions, the boy told the Reuters news agency. – When I ran, one of the bandits followed me on a motorbike. I managed to cross the road and ran into the forest where I hid, says Aminu. The scale of kidnappings has long been a hot political issue in Nigeria, and the scale of the kidnappings last week has caused strong reactions. Security forces are now searching through large forests in north-west Nigeria in search of the pupils who were kidnapped from the children’s school in Kuriga. SEARCH ACTION: The security forces are looking for abducted school children. Photo: Sunday Alamba / AP So far there have been no reports that anyone has been found. According to the headmaster in the town of Kuriga in the northwest of the country, 287 pupils were kidnapped by armed men after the morning assembly on Thursday. At least one hundred of the children are under the age of 13. Adults abducted this week Several dozen people have been abducted from a village in northwest Nigeria on Tuesday this week. It happens only days after the abduction of almost 300 school pupils. Armed men stormed a village in Kajuru district. They went from house to house to abduct people and open fire sporadically, a local public authority told the TV channel Channels, NTB writes. A UN source tells AFP that armed men stormed the village. – The first count showed that 40 people were abducted, but the figure has risen to around 60, says the UN source. Breakaway group from Boko Haram? It is not entirely clear who was behind the attack. But the BBC writes that Ansaru is suspected, a breakaway group from Boko Haram, which controls a lot of territory in this part of Nigeria. Boko Haram is an Islamist terrorist organization. The name “Boko Haram” means “Western education is a sin” and the girls were kidnapped just as they were at school. THE LEADER: The Islamist movement Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau. Photo: HANDOUT / AFP There has been an increase in attacks and kidnappings recently. Several criminal groups are active, some more well-known than others. In addition to Boko Haram, IS also has branches in Nigeria and West Africa. “Kidnapping is lucrative” It is often also loose criminal groups that are behind kidnappings. They make a living by kidnapping people for ransom. Kidnapping has thus become a kind of business. CLASSROOM: Empty classrooms at the school in Kuriga in Nigeria after the pupils were abducted. Photo: HAIDAR UMAR / AFP Some believe it is the country’s economic crisis that causes desperate people to resort to dramatic actions. – Everything is about lack of money and poverty, says Emeka Okoro to the AFP news agency. He is an analyst with Nigeria’s SBM Intelligence. – Kidnapping is a lucrative business. Enormous sums have been paid to kidnappers in the last two rescue operations after schoolchildren have been abducted, he says. Threatens the president’s position SBM, for which analyst Okoro works, tells AFP that they have recorded 3,964 kidnappings since Tinubu took over as president in May – that is, ten months ago. Tinubu had the fight for security and the fight against criminal groups as one of his most important issues during the election campaign last year. The many attacks lately have really caused trouble for Tinubu, and put pressure on him. This is in addition to a bad economic situation for Nigeria. “Bring Back Our Girls” Forced marriage and sexual violence against girls and women who are kidnapped are common. “Bring Back Our Girls” was a slogan ten years ago, when several hundred girls were kidnapped from a girls’ school by Boko Haram. 2014: Bring back our girls became a slogan worldwide. This is shoemaker Salma Hayek on the red carpet in Cannes on May 17, 2014. Photo: YVES HERMAN / Reuters What has happened now is very similar to the event that received a lot of attention ten years ago. That time too, it was promised to free the schoolgirls. Some were saved, but many are missing to this day. The story went around the world after the 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped in north-eastern Nigeria on 14 April 2014. That time it was the terrorist group Boko Haram. The abduction led to outrage all over the world and a special commitment. The hashtag #BringBackOurGirls was used by everyone from Michelle Obama via Kim Kardashian to the Pope.
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Experiencing parents’ nightmare – 287 children abducted from school in Nigeria – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
