Nigerian army successfully rescued students and staff who were abducted by gunmen from a school in the country’s north earlier this month, the military confirmed.
The kidnapping occurred on 7th March in Kuriga, Kaduna state, marking the first mass abduction since 2021, when over 150 students were taken from a secondary school in the same region.
According to Major General Edward Buba, the military spokesperson, a total of 137 hostages, comprising 76 females and 61 males, were rescued in a coordinated operation in the early hours of 24th March in Zamfara state, which borders Kaduna.
The rescue operation involved joint efforts between the military, local authorities, and government agencies nationwide. The freed hostages were reportedly found in a forest and were being escorted to Kaduna’s capital for medical evaluation before reuniting with their families.
Details regarding whether there was a confrontation with the captors or how the hostages were extracted were not immediately available. Initially, Kaduna Governor Uba Sani stated that over 200 hostages were taken, but there’s a discrepancy in reported numbers, as per officials.
The phenomenon of school abductions in Nigeria dates back to the infamous 2014 kidnapping of 276 girls from a school in Chibok by the jihadist group Boko Haram. While some of the girls remain in captivity, the tactic has since been adopted by various criminal gangs without ideological affiliations.
The recent incident involved the gunmen demanding a ransom of 1 billion naira ($690,000) for the release of the abducted children and staff. Despite the ransom demand, the government reiterated its stance of not negotiating with kidnappers or paying ransoms, a practice outlawed in 2022.
Kidnappings for ransom have become alarmingly frequent, particularly in northern Nigeria, causing immense distress to families and communities. Often, families are forced to deplete their savings and sell assets like land, cattle, and grain to secure the release of their loved ones.
