Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 08:00 am
At least 27 children and several teachers have been abducted by gunmen at a boarding school in central Nigeria Niger state, local officials told AFP. AbdullberqyEbbo, director general of the strategic operation in Niger state, said in a statement on his Twitter account that gunmen had killed one student in the site.
Local Officials said that bandits entered a government college in Kagara at night and abducted a number of students and their teachers. “One of the staff and some of the students managed to escape. Staff confirmed that one student was shot” during the attack, the official added. Although no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, there are fears that it could become a terrorist group.
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According to local sources, the attackers, dressed in military uniforms and masks, stormed the school hotels to take the children away, although they took more than two dozen children some escaped during the accident.
In many parts of Africa, including Nigeria, there are kidnappers seeking ransom. For nearly a decade, northwest and central Nigeria was marred by violence committed by organized crime groups “Bandits”, which increase the ransom kidnapping.
The abduction, which shocked the students’ parents, raised concerns that the students would be killed. Military and air-backed military personnel were searching for the hostages and in preparation for a possible rescue operation, sources said. These groups often hijack people to make money, but there are terrorist groups that commit similar acts.
Last December, 344 students at a school in Kankara, Katsina State, were abducted. Such incidents are on the rise in Nigeria.
Nigerian President MuhammaduBuhari, meanwhile, condemned the heinous act and said it was a cowardly attack on innocent school children. The president has instructed the armed forces and the police to ensure the immediate and safe return of all detainees,” GarbaShehu, the president’s spokesman, said in a statement on Wednesday.
