Armed groups kidnapped more than 100 people in two new attacks in northwestern Nigeria over the weekend of March 16 and 17, ten days after at least 280 students and teachers from a school were kidnapped, residents and The authorities. The children's relatives report that they still have no news about their whereabouts, while the security forces assure that they continue with their search.
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The kidnappers “came and took people out of their homes at gunpoint”said Ibrahim Gajere, Chairman of Kajuru Local Government, Kaduna State, Nigeria.
On Sunday night, March 17, an armed group kidnapped 87 people around the Kajuru district station. According to resident Harisu Dari, the bandits broke into the town at 10 p.m. and went door to door, kidnapping residents.
“Bandits” is the term used for criminal gangs other than armed groups active in the north and northwest of Nigeria.. These criminal groups have been increasing their power in the country's rural areas by looting towns and carrying out mass kidnappings, charging high ransom sums.
Of the 87 people kidnapped on Sunday, five managed to escape through the bush, Tanko Wada Sarkin, a community leader from Kajuru, told Reuters.
On Saturday, March 16, 16 people were kidnapped in Dogon Noma, a neighboring town of Kajuru.
Both attacks add to the recent wave of large-scale kidnappings, that put pressure on the Government of President Bola Tinubu, elected on the promise of restoring security in the country.
A United Nations source and a former local official confirmed the facts to AFP on condition of anonymity.
In addition to these two kidnappings, on Tuesday, March 12, an armed group kidnapped 61 people in the community of Buda, 10 kilometers from Kajuru.
No news of the kidnapping of the children
On March 7, at the start of the school day, a group of armed bandits surrounded a public school in Kuriga, also in Kaduna state, and kidnapped at least 280 students and teachers, taking them to the adjacent forest. It is the first kidnapping of that magnitude that the country has suffered since 2021.
Read alsoArmed men kidnap more than a hundred children from a school in northern Nigeria
More than a week later, the relatives of the kidnapped children report that the authorities have not shared any news with them about the search process.
A relative told AFP that on Monday, March 18, Governor Uba Sani met with representatives of the families of those kidnapped and said that “everything possible” was being done to free the children.
On March 12, Kuriga community leader Jubril Aminu received a call from the kidnappers from a hidden number, demanding payment of a ransom of 1 billion Naira ($620,432). The bandits threatened to kill the children and teachers if they did not, Aminu told Reuters.
The next day, Information Minister Mohammed Idris said in a press conference that President Bola Tinubu ordered security agencies to “work day and night to ensure that those children and all those who have been abducted are returned to saved”, but that they would make sure “not pay a cent” to criminal groups.
Despite a 2022 law that prohibits giving money to kidnappers, analysts agree that kidnapping victims in Nigeria are usually released after negotiations with authorities.
A spiral of violence
The school abductions were initially carried out by the jihadist group Boko Haram, which in 2014 kidnapped 276 girls from a school in Chibok.
However, this type of large-scale kidnapping has been adopted by bandits, criminal groups that do not claim any ideology, as a financing method.
According to United Nations data, the spiral of violence in the north and northwest of Nigeria It has already caused the displacement of nearly a million people.
The Nigerian risk consultancy SBM Intelligence counts 4,777 people kidnapped since the Tinubu Government took office in May 2023.
“The Nigerian security system is not up to the task of preventing this threat from getting out of control,” Confidence Mac Harry, security analyst at SBM Intelligence, warned AFP.
Kidnappings are heartbreaking for families and communities, who are emptied of their savings or forced to sell their land to pay the ransom and ensure the return of their loved ones.
With AFP and Reuters
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