More than 130 children kidnapped more than two weeks ago from their school in Nigeria's northwestern state of Kaduna were rescued on Sunday and are receiving psychological support before being returned to their families, officials said. the country's military and government officials.
While school authorities and villagers had told the state government that a total of 287 students were kidnapped when gunmen on motorcycles invaded the isolated Kuriga school on March 7, Kaduna Governor Uba Sani told local media on Sunday evening that only 137 youths were kidnapped during the attack.
“They all returned home safe and sound,” the governor said in a program broadcast by the Lagos-based Channels television station.
The group included 76 girls and 61 boys.
Kidnappings are unfortunately very common in the West African country, as is a different assessment of the number of people kidnapped, sometimes due to inadequate record-keeping or because some hostages escape for a few moments after their kidnapping.
“What’s more important is getting the kids back,” the governor said.
Children still in school uniform and exhausted
The 137 children were rescued in Zamfara state, an enclave known for kidnappings located more than 200 km from Kuriga.
“In the early hours of March 24, 2024, the military working with local authorities and government agencies across the country in a coordinated search and rescue operation rescued the hostages,” said Maj. Gen. Edward Buba in a press release, hostages who were in a forest.
The rescue took place just days before the deadline to pay a ransom of one billion naira (638,000 euros) for their release.
There is no indication that she was paid, or that she was not.
Photos showed the children exhausted as they were transported after their release: they are covered in dust and still wearing their blue-white-brown uniforms.
Kuriga town leaders joined other government officials to await their arrival at the Kaduna State government headquarters, which authorities postponed until Monday.
The children were in “good spirits” and receiving psychological support and medical care, the governor said.
At least 1,400 students kidnapped since 2014
On Saturday, at least 17 other schoolchildren from northern Sokoto State were also rescued.
They had been kidnapped two weeks earlier.
At least 1,400 students have been kidnapped from Nigerian schools since 2014, when Boko Haram militants captured hundreds of schoolgirls from Chibok village in Borno state.
Their capture gave rise to the international “Bring back our girls” movement, which unfortunately did not bear all of its fruit.
In recent years, kidnappings have been concentrated in the country's northwest and central regions, where dozens of armed groups often target villagers and travelers for ransom.
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Under growing pressure to end mass kidnappings in northern Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu pledged that his administration would "deploy detailed strategies to ensure that our schools remain safe sanctuaries for learning, not dens for free removals”.
Tinubu had vowed to save the children “without paying a cent” in ransom.
But ransoms are usually paid for kidnappings, often organized by families, who sell their land and livestock, and pool their meager savings to secure the release of their loved ones, and it is rare for Nigerian authorities to admit such payments.
No group has claimed responsibility for the Kaduna kidnapping, which residents blamed on bandit groups known for massacres and kidnappings for ransom in the conflict-plagued northern region, most of them being former shepherds in conflict with sedentary communities.