Children abducted in Nigeria were reunited with their parents, other students released – archyworldys

In Nigeria, a country plagued by the proliferation of child abductions, two good news arrived on Friday, August 27. Ninety-two students from an Islamic seminary in western Nigeria, kidnapped in May, were reunited with their parents after their release on Thursday. These students, some of whom are under the age of 10, met with the state governor before reuniting with their families on Friday. And about thirty students from another school were released by their captors.

May 30, about 200 heavily armed men invaded the town of Tegina, in the State of Niger, and kidnapped dozens of students from the private Muslim school Salihu Tanko. According to the principal of the school, Abubakar Alhassan, 92 children of the seminary were released, as well as two Christian students who had been abducted from a nearby village. One of the students kidnapped in Tegina died in captivity, he said.

No details were given on the circumstances of their release, but relatives reported that during their time in captivity they sold houses and property to raise money to pay ransom. An envoy sent in early August by relatives to hand over a ransom was himself held prisoner for a week before being released with a demand for a larger sum.

School officials initially said 136 students were kidnapped. But, after a careful count carried out with the parents, it appeared that 93 children had been abducted, communicated to Agence France-Presse (AFP) the director of the school. Information on the deaths of children and the flight of several others was not linked to the kidnapping of students at the Islamic seminary, he said.

Paying a ransom

Friday evening, a representative of families of other kidnapped students, from a Baptist school in Kaduna State (northern Nigeria), announced the release of 32 children.

“The bandits freed 32 other students today, Friday. There are still 31 in captivity and we hope they will be released soon., Reverend Joseph Hayab told AFP. Like the previous students, we had to pay a ransom to get them released, but I don’t want to reveal the amount. “

The 5 of July, gunmen invaded Bethel Secondary School Baptist high school boarding school in Chikun town and kidnapped 121 students who were sleeping in their rooms.

Northwest and central Nigeria are experiencing an increase in attacks, looting and mass kidnappings by criminal groups known locally as “Bandits”. But this year, these gangs started targeting schoolchildren and students for ransoms.

About a thousand of them have been kidnapped since December, when criminal groups started attacking schools. Most were released after negotiations, but hundreds remain prisoners in camps hidden in forests.

These bandits are first of all motivated by the greed, and a priori have no ideological motivation, unlike the jihadist groups that are rampant in Nigeria. Boko Haram Islamists are the first to kidnap schools, with the kidnapping of more than 200 young girls from their Chibok dormitory in 2014, sparking global public opinion.