More than 300 students kidnapped after attack on a high school in northern Nigeria

Empty classroom at the Kankara Government Secondary School of Science in the Nigerian state of Katsina, where more than 300 students were abducted on Friday.AFOLABI SOTUNDE / Reuters

More than 300 high school students have been kidnapped in northern Nigeria since last Friday night when gunmen attacked a boys' high school where there were 839 students at the time.

The authorities claim to have surrounded the attackers in a wooded area, whom they describe as "bandits."

Predictably, they would be part of one of the many gangs that have been sowing terror in this area for years, dedicated to robbery and kidnapping, and which have caused the deaths of 1,126 people between January and August of this year alone, according to an Amnesty report. International.

The events occurred at the Government Science Secondary School, an educational facility located in the city of Kankara, in the state of Katsina.

Although the figures are confusing, the governor of that state, Aminu Bello Masari, assured local media on Monday that there are more than 300 missing students.

"According to the available registry we have, we are still looking for 333 students in the forest or through their parents to determine the real number of kidnapped," he said.

Authorities believe that some of them may remain sheltering among the trees or in nearby towns.

The governor also confirmed Sunday afternoon that no group or person had contacted the authorities to demand a ransom or to acknowledge responsibility for the attack.

"These thugs must be declared terrorists, in the next few days we will make sure that the students return without collateral damage," said Nigerian Defense Minister Bashir Magashi, who traveled to Katsina over the weekend to inquire about the fate of these guys.

The assailants arrived on motorcycles and began firing at the security forces who tried to repel them.

In the midst of the shooting, many students ran into the nearby forest to take refuge, but hundreds were captured by the attackers, according to some of those who managed to escape.

One of the young men, Osama Aminu Maale, 18, told France Presse that the gunmen who captured them ordered the older students to count them.

"There were 520 of us," he explained.

According to their account, they were first taken by buses and then divided into groups to go on foot.

“One of the bandits hit me several times because I couldn't keep up with the march.

He left me behind, which gave me a chance to escape, ”he explained.

Last August, an Amnesty International report already warned how the Nigerian authorities had left rural communities in several states in northern Nigeria to their fate, which were being attacked and kidnapped by gangs of armed men.

According to his count, at least 1,126 people have died since last January as a result of this violence, which is centered in the states of Kaduna, Katsina, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara.

Hundreds of Nigerians have launched a campaign through social media with the hashtag #BringBackOurBoys that is reminiscent of the media initiative BringBackOurGirls that was launched after the kidnapping of 276 girls in Chibok by the jihadist group Boko Haram in 2014. At least 112 of those young students remain unaccounted for today, while the rest have been released in Army operations or after negotiation processes.

President Muhammadu Buhari strongly condemned this attack, which took place in his home state, and promised to strengthen security at schools, which are closed until further notice.

Amnesty International has demanded a swift reaction from the Government to guarantee the safety of education and Unicef ​​has called for the unconditional release of all children.

The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, also condemned the kidnapping in a statement and recalled that the attacks against schools and places of education "constitute a serious violation of human rights."

The increase in the activity of gangs made up of dozens of men who launch their offensives on motorcycles, are armed with AK-47 rifles and are dedicated to the theft of cattle and the kidnapping of peasants has spread terror in the north of Nigeria.

The authorities call them "bandits" but under this name they range from simple thieves to self-defense groups of shepherds or agricultural communities confronted by resources.

Cells with jihadist ideology that different experts fear are assuming tactics and even receiving logistical support from groups present in Niger, such as Boko Haram or the Islamic State, can also be classified as such.

This violence has forced tens of thousands of people to abandon their homes - in Katsina alone there are 33,000 in camps for the displaced - and thousands of farmers to abandon their fields.