Parents in Nigeria’s northwest are worried about their children being kidnapped

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 07:57 am

On Monday, worried parents wait for word of their children at a Nigerian school. As word of the kidnapping spread Monday afternoon, a group of them gathered in front of Bethel Baptist High School.

Gunmen assaulted the Bethel Baptist High School in Nigeria’s northwest, in the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna state.

After assaulting the Bethel Baptist High School in Kaduna state in the early hours of Monday, the gunmen opened fire and overwhelmed security officers, abducting the majority of the 165 students boarding there overnight.

They grabbed 140 pupils in the early hours of the morning, 24 students escaped, and authorities confirmed that 26 students, including a teacher, were rescued to safety. According to a school official, this is the latest in a string of mass kidnappings of pupils and students in Africa’s most populous country.

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In the northwest and central Nigeria, heavily armed criminal groups frequently invade villages to plunder, steal cattle and kidnap for ransom. They have, however, been aggressively targeting schools and universities since the beginning of the year. Since December, almost 1,000 students and pupils have been kidnapped in Nigeria.

Although most of them have been released as a result of agreements with local officials, several remain detained. Gangs frequently target rural schools and colleges, where students live in dorms and security is lax, allowing them to transport large groups of captives to woodland hideouts to negotiate ransoms.