Number of children abducted in Nigerian school attack now more than 300. Here’s what you need to know
More than 300 schoolchildren and 12 teachers have been abducted by gunmen from St. Mary’s School, a Catholic institution in north-central Nigeria’s Niger state. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) confirmed the updated figures on Saturday, significantly increasing an earlier tally of 215 schoolchildren.
The revised count was announced after a “verification exercise and a final census was carried out,” according to a statement from the Most. Rev. Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, chairman of the Niger state chapter of CAN. Rev. Yohanna had visited the school on Friday to assess the situation following the attack.
The school kidnapping in Niger state’s remote Papiri community happened four days after 25 schoolchildren were seized in similar circumstances in neighboring Kebbi state’s Maga town, which is 170 kilometers (106 miles) away.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the abductions and authorities have said tactical squads have been deployed alongside local hunters to rescue the children.
Local police said they have deployed a team to rescue the children.
School kidnappings have come to define insecurity in Africa’s most populous nation, and analysts say it’s often because armed gangs see schools as “strategic” targets to draw more attention.
UNICEF said last year that only 37% of schools across 10 of the conflict-hit states have early warning systems to detect threats.The kidnappings are happening amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims of targeted killings against Christians in the West African country. Attacks in Nigeria affect both Christians and Muslims.
The school attack earlier this week in Kebbi state was in the Muslim-majority Maga town.
Kidnappers in the past have included Boko Haram, a jihadi insurgency that carried out the mass abduction of 276 Chibok schoolgirls more than a decade ago, bringing the Islamic extremist group to global attention.But dozens of bandit groups have become active in the hard-hit northern region, often targeting remote villages with a limited security and government presence.
At least 1,500 students have been seized in the years since the Chibok attack, many released only after ransoms were paid.
Boko Haram and an Islamic State affiliate Boko Haram has long menaced large parts of Nigeria‘s north, especially the northeast, as well as parts of neighboring Cameroon, Niger and Chad. The militant group has sought to impose an Islamic state in the region and its name — meaning “books are forbidden” — rejects Western education.In 2014, Boko Haram burst onto the global stage with the Chibok abduction. Four years later, its fighters abducted 110 schoolgirls from a college in Yobe state in the northeast.
The militants have mounted a strong resurgence this year after splitting in the past, with many fighters now aligned with a local affiliate of the Islamic State group. The exact number of fighters with each group is unknown, though they are estimated in the low thousands.The groups continue to recruit, sometimes forcibly, youth who have been left vulnerable in a region that Nigerian authorities and humanitarian organizations struggle to serve safely.
The Trump administration’s deep cuts in foreign aid to Nigeria this year haven’t helped.
Other armed groups in northern Nigeria carry out abductions, largely for ransom. Authorities have said they include mostly former herders who took up arms against farming communities after clashes between them over increasingly strained resources.
