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Gunmen in northwestern Nigeria kidnapped around 30 students from a forestry college near a military academy in the fourth mass removal of schools since December, authorities said.
The last kidnapping took place at around 11:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Federal College of Forest Mechanization in Afaka, in the Igabi local government area of Kaduna state, police said.
“About thirty students, a mixture of men and women, have not yet been identified,” State Commissioner for International Security and Home Affairs Samuel Aruwan said in a statement on Friday. Several school staff were also kidnapped, he added.
The college is on the outskirts of Kaduna town, the capital of Kaduna state, in an area frequented by armed gangs, who often travel by motorbike.
“This is the first time that a mass kidnapping of girls has taken place at a higher education institution,” Fidelis Mbah, a journalist based in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, told Al Jazeera.
“Gunmen have always targeted high schools where younger students attend. This is a new development compared to their usual mode of operation. “
Mbah said authorities had not yet indicated which group was behind the kidnapping.
On Friday morning, relatives of students gathered at the gates of the college, which was surrounded by around 20 army trucks.
Resident Haruna Salisu, speaking by phone, told Reuters news agency he heard sporadic gunfire around 11:30 p.m. local time.
“We weren’t panicking, thinking it was a normal military exercise conducted at the Nigerian Defense Academy,” he said.
“We went out for dawn prayers at 5:20 am and saw students, teachers and security personnel all over the school premises. They told us that armed men attacked the school and abducted some of the students.
Salisu said he saw military personnel taking the remaining students to the academy.
Lawless region
Heavily armed criminal gangs in northwest and central Nigeria have stepped up their attacks in recent years, kidnapping for ransom, raping and looting.
The Nigerian military deployed to the region in 2016 and a peace deal with bandits was signed in 2019, but attacks continued.
In recent weeks, 279 schoolgirls have been released after being abducted from their boarding school in Jangebe, Zamfara state, northwest Nigeria, and 27 teenagers have been released after being abducted from their school in the State of north-central Niger, with three staff. and 12 family members. A student was shot dead in this attack.
Earlier in December, more than 300 boys were abducted from a school in Kankara, President Muhammadu Buhari’s home state, Katsina, as the president visited the region.
The boys were later released, but the incident sparked outrage and memories of the kidnappings of at least 276 schoolgirls by the Boko Haram armed group in Chibok in 2014 that shocked the world. Many of these girls are still missing.
Kidnapping for ransom in Africa’s most populous country is a widespread national problem, with businessmen, officials and citizens being dragged from the streets by criminals looking for money.
At least $ 11 million was paid to kidnappers between January 2016 and March 2020, according to SB Morgen, a Lagos-based geopolitical research consultancy.
At the end of February, Buhari urged state governments to “review their policy of rewarding bandits with cash and vehicles, warning that this policy could cause a disastrous boomerang.”
The unrest has become a political issue for Buhari, a retired general and former military leader who has faced mounting criticism over the rise in violent crime, and replaced his longtime military leaders in February.
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