A group of gunmen kidnapped 317 girls from a boarding school in northern Nigeria on Friday, police said, the latest in a series of mass kidnappings of students in the West African nation.
Police and military have launched joint operations to rescue the minors following the attack on the Government Secondary School for Girls in the village of Jangebe, according to Mohamed Shehu, a police spokesman in Zamfara state, who confirmed the number of minors kidnapped.
Nasiru Abdulahi, one of the parents, told The Associated Press that his daughters, aged 10 and 13, were among the kidnapped girls.
“It is disappointing that, although the armed forces are strong in the vicinity of the school, they have not been able to protect the girls,” he said. “At this point we have only hope for divine intervention.”
According to Musa Mustafa, a resident of the area, the gunmen also attacked a nearby military camp and checkpoint, preventing the soldiers from intervening while the attackers spent several hours at the school. It is currently not known whether people were killed in the attack.
Several large groups of armed men operate in the state of Zamfara, and they are known to commit kidnappings to collect ransom and in return secure the release of their imprisoned members. The government regards them as bandits.
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Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said on Friday that the government’s main goal is to get all kidnapped girls back alive and unharmed.
“We will not succumb to the blackmail of bandits and criminals who attack innocent students expecting a large ransom to be paid,” he said. “We let bandits, kidnappers and terrorists have no illusions that they are more powerful than the government. They should not confuse our measure of achieving the humanitarian goals of protecting innocent lives with a weakness, or a sign of fear or indecision.
The president also urged state governments to review their policy of making payments to bandits, either in cash or by vehicle.
“We are angry and saddened by another brutal attack on students in Nigeria,” said Peter Hawkins, UNICEF’s representative for children in the country.
“This is a serious violation of children’s rights and a terrible experience for them,” added Hawkins, demanding their immediate release.
The West African nation has witnessed several such attacks and kidnappings in recent years. Most notably, 276 girls from Chibok High School, Borno State, were kidnapped by the Boko Haram Islamist militia in April 2014. More than 100 of them are still missing.
About two weeks ago, gunmen abducted 42 people, 27 of them students, at Government Science College in Kagara, Niger. Students, teachers and family members are still being held.
In December, 344 students were kidnapped from Kankara Government High School for Science in Katsina region and later released.
Anietie Ewang, an investigator for the Human Rights Watch activist group in Nigeria, recalled the latest incidents by tweeting, “Energetic action from authorities is needed to stop the wave and keep schools safe.”