Seven-year-old Safiya Kuriga complained she was feeling feverish, but her mother still made her attend class on Thursday. Within two hours, gunmen entered her school and kidnapped Safiya and about 300 other students in Nigeria’s northern Kaduna State.
“I forced her to go to school that morning despite her complaining to me of a fever,” a sobbing Khadiya Kuriga said by telephone from the town of Kuriga. “We have been crying since yesterday. Our children are hungry.”
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Friday ordered troops to rescue kidnapped students.
Photo: Reuters
Gunmen seized more than 300 primary and secondary school children between the ages of seven and 15, school authorities and parents said.
Some students were later released while a few others escaped, leaving at least 286 missing, said Salisu Abubakar, a teacher at the Local Government Education Authority School.
No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, the first mass school abduction in Nigeria since July 2021, when gunmen seized some 150 children.
Tinubu said he had directed security and intelligence agencies to rescue the children “and ensure that justice is served against the perpetrators.”
“I have received briefing from security chiefs on the two incidents, and I am confident that the victims will be rescued,” he said in a statement. “Nothing else is acceptable to me and the waiting family members of these abducted citizens. Justice will be decisively administered.”
Thirteen-year-old Aminu Abdullahi said the armed men numbered about 50 and were shooting in the air when they entered the school.
He was lucky as he ran into the bush to hide until the gunmen left with many of his schoolmates.
Sani Muazu’s eight-year-old son Ali also escaped, but not after he was taken deep into the bush by the kidnappers.
The young boy was in class when armed men stormed in and ordered everyone to follow them, his father said.
Before he knew what was happening, Ali was walking barefoot in the bush with dozens of others, followed by the gunmen, he said.
“My son did not know how many they were, but he said they were many. They were crying of hunger, exhaustion and dehydration,” Muazu said.
When darkness fell, the children were made to sleep in a large clearing in the forest and Ali took an opportunity to escape.
“That was how my son managed to escape and walked back home throughout the night. We just saw him arrive early this morning and we are grateful to God,” Muazu said.
Additional reporting by AFP
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