Gunmen escape with kids from a authorities main faculty in Kuriga city in Kaduna state.
Gunmen attacked a faculty in northwest Nigeria and kidnapped dozens of pupils as they have been about to start out the varsity day, native residents and authorities say.
The police in Kaduna state didn’t instantly touch upon the kidnappings, which happened on the Native Authorities Schooling Authority Faculty in Kuriga city on Thursday.
The variety of pupils taken was not instantly clear.
The assailants stormed the varsity shortly after the morning meeting at round 8 a.m. (07:00 GMT), taking pupils hostage earlier than any assist might arrive, Joshua Madami, a youth chief within the space, instructed l Related Press information company.
“They have been surrounded from all angles and left with virtually 200 college students and college students,” mentioned Madami.
In response to Salasi Musa, chairman of Chikun Native Authorities Space in Kaduna, the variety of kidnapped pupils was “properly over 100”.
Abductions of scholars from faculties in northern Nigeria are widespread and have grow to be a supply of concern since 2014 when Boko Haram kidnapped greater than 200 schoolgirls within the village of Chibok in Borno state.
In recent times, kidnappings have been concentrated within the northwest and central areas, the place dozens of armed teams typically goal villagers and vacationers for big ransoms.
The final main reported kidnapping involving schoolchildren was in June 2021 when gunmen took greater than 80 college students in a raid on a faculty within the northwestern state of Kebbi.
“We don't know what to do”
The mother and father of the lacking kids instructed the Reuters information company that the gunmen started capturing sporadically upon arrival on the faculty earlier than kidnapping the kids and fleeing.
The college educates main and secondary faculty college students.
“We don't know what to do. We’re all ready to see what God can do. They’re my solely kids that I’ve on Earth,” Fatima Usman, whose two kids have been amongst these kidnapped, instructed Reuters by phone.
One other mum or dad, Hassan Abdullahi, instructed Reuters that native vigilantes had tried to fend off the gunmen, however they survived.
“Seventeen of the kidnapped college students are my kids. I really feel very unhappy that the federal government has fully uncared for us on this space,” Abdullahi mentioned.
