The mass abduction of schoolchildren that happened on Thursday morning is the biggest in years. Another kidnapping took place on Saturday, in which at least 15 school children were taken.
At least 28 schoolchildren have managed to escape in a kidnapping in which gunmen abducted nearly 300 students, the governor of Nigeria's Kaduna state said on Saturday For BBC News.
The Nigerian army is leading the search for schoolchildren kidnapped by gunmen in the foothills of Kuriga in the north of the country and in the neighboring states of Katsina and Zamfara.
Armed men on motorcycles took elementary and middle school-aged children between the ages of 8 and 15 with them, school officials and parents said. Almost every Kuriga family's child is among the kidnapped.
In addition, the gunmen shot a 14-year-old student, who later died of his injuries in the hospital.
Nigeria president Bola Ahmed Tinubu said on social media that he was confident that the abducted students would be brought to safety.
“I and the family members of the abductees do not accept any other solution,” Tinubu wrote in X.
On Saturday, according to the news agency Reuters, there was also another kidnapping. The gunmen were said to have taken away at least 15 pupils and students of various ages in Sokoto state.
Junior mass kidnappings for ransom are relatively common in Nigeria. There are estimated to be thousands of children in Nigeria whose parents do not let them go to school for security reasons.
Thursday's kidnapping of schoolchildren is the largest in years.
In July 2021, gunmen kidnapped more than 150 students. The students' family members paid the demanded ransom to the gangs, and the children were able to return to their homes months later.
In 2022, a law was passed in Nigeria that prohibits the payment of ransom to kidnappers. According to the law, abductors can be sentenced to death if the abductees die.
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