Two additional students, kidnapped with about 20 of their comrades on April 20 in Kaduna, in northern Nigeria, were executed, Samuel Aruwan, Minister of the Interior of Kaduna State, announced on Monday.
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The kidnappers had already executed at the weekend three students from the University of Greenfield, attacked on the evening of April 20. This was the fifth attack on schools or universities in northwest or central Nigeria. About 20 students were abducted, university officials said on condition of anonymity, and an employee was shot dead during the attack. "
Security agencies have just reported to the Kaduna state government the discovery of two other bodies of Greenfield University students killed by armed bandits,
" Aruwan said on Monday.
These armed gangs, whose members are commonly referred to as “
bandits
” in this region, terrorize populations in west-central and northwestern Nigeria, looting villages, stealing livestock and carrying out mass kidnappings for ransom. "
We will not give them a cent, they will not make any profit in Kaduna State
," Governor Nasir El-Rufai warned in an interview on local television earlier this month.
Recent attacks on schools - often isolated boarding schools - have led six northern states to close schools. Since December 2020, some 730 students have been kidnapped, attacks that have disrupted the education of more than five million children, according to Unicef. "
Banditry, kidnapping and the policy of murders will be combated with all available resources
," Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said on Saturday, much criticized for his handling of the extremely worrying security situation in the most populous country in Africa.