Children in Nigeria are being abducted from schools, often hundreds of boys and girls at a time. Young school kids have become bait (they are taken for ransom), some of them make it home but many haven’t. It has now become big business, the fastest growing criminal enterprise in Nigeria. The country has witnessed at least 11 cases of kidnapping of pupils and students from their schools since 2014. Over 700 students and pupils have been kidnapped since December, 2020.
So, who is behind the kidnappings? Why are they still happening? And why have the people in charge failed to stop them?
The mass kidnapping of students from their schools is becoming a norm in Nigeria, particularly in the northern part of the country. It is hard to get an exact number, but over 900 people have been abducted in Nigeria so far this year; and most of them are school children.
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Kidnappings happen across the country, in the early 2000’s they were pretty common I the Niger-Delta (Nigeria’s oil region). Armed groups and pirates were kidnapping oil workers there (many of them were foreigners). That was a way that the Niger Delta militants were making money at the time because there was the belief that somebody would pay, be it the embassy, families or relatives.
By around 2009, kidnappings were becoming a real problem in the North (that’s Boko Haram territory). They are considered a terrorist group and they are the one’s who took the CHIBOK school girls. Nearly 300 of them were held captive for years. Boko Haram’s motive isn’t so much money but ideology as their name roughly translates as ‘Western Education is Forbidden’. A global campaign attracted celebrities and awareness, but 7 years on more than a hundred are still missing.
Violence and mass kidnappings are still happening in those areas. But right now, they are expanding to the North-West and Central states. Since December, a school is targeted roughly every 3 weeks.
Just before sunset on Thursday, gunmen attacked the Federal Government College Birnin-Yauri, a secondary school in Kebbi State, and abducted dozens of students from their dormitories. The armed bandits killed a police officer and kidnapped at least 80 students and five teachers during the attack.
Three of the students are dead, according to the BBC Hausa. Security forces continued their search and, by Sunday morning, authorities were still counting the missing. Less than a quarter of the kidnapped students have since been freed by security operatives in shootouts with the bandits.
Two months later, gunmen raided another school (this time in Niger State), taking 27 students into their hideouts. Then in late February, bandits forced 317 girls from a school in Zamfara State, firing into the air for over two hours as they raided the village, residents said at the time.
So, who are the kidnappers? Locally, they call them ‘Bandits’, which seems to be an umbrella term for lots of people (criminal gangs, fighters’ from boko haram and young men who see an opportunity). However, analysts say it’s an organized criminal network that has evolved over time.
Armed bandits have taken advantage of an ineffective government and weak security presence to continue their reign of terror on villages and schools. These criminal gangs maintain camps in various forests, including the Rugu forest, which links Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states. From their hideouts, they organise raids on rural communities, schools, homes and Nigeria’s road networks.
What’s their motivation? Well, the obvious answer is money. Families often can’t afford to pay ransoms, but local governments have more money. According to Council of Foreign Relations, reports suggest that the Katsina government paid about $76,000 to recover more than 3,000 school boys kidnapped last year. If they are public schools, they are thus the responsibility of the government. So, to save face, you see all steps being taken including negotiation and payment of ransom to get the students’ back. Sometimes those negotiations even go so far as to offer amnesty. This indirectly translates to others as ‘it pays to go into crime, wait your time and make sure you don’t get caught and then come out and the government will negotiate with you’.
Local officials have also been criticized for the way they are treating rescued children. The UN says that they are not getting the help they need to deal with their trauma. There have even been times when children who have been freed are forced to sit through elaborate media conferences (sometimes before they are allowed to see their parents).
So locally, there are a lot of problems but these kidnappings don’t happen in a vacuum. The Nigerian economy is in terrible shape, unemployment and inflation is high, corruption is also common (even in the justice system), which makes it hard to hold people accountable and then there is the security issue. Armed groups like Boko haram still operate in the North and security forces in general are under-funded and overstretched. President Buhari says he’s working hard to bring an end to these incidents of kidnapping and that the Military and Police would continue to go after kidnappers but still there’s a lot of pent-up frustration from citizens.
Read Also: Chibok girls: Seven years after
TIMELINE
BUSINESSDAY highlights the cases of mass kidnapping of students from schools in Nigeria in the last seven years.
April 14, 2014: Boko Haram terrorists abducted 276 school girls from their dormitories in Chibok, Borno State at a time the students were writing their final year exams. About 57 of the girls managed to escape at different times while on transit with their abductors and more than 100 have been released in talks with the government. About 100 Chibok girls have yet to be accounted for.
February 19, 2018: About 113 school girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram at a government girls secondary school in Dapchi, Yobe State. Most of the girls were later released while a few died. One of them, Leah Sharibu, is still with the Boko Haram.
December 11 2020: Gunmen attacked the Government Boys Science Secondary School in Kankara Local Government Area of Katsina State and abducted over 300 students. All the boys were released about a week after the abduction.
December 20, 2020: At least 80 pupils were kidnapped at an Islamic school in Mahuta, Katsina State. The students were released after negotiation with their abductors but the government denied paying any ransom.
February 17, 2021: Bandits kidnapped 27 students at a government science college, Kagara, Niger State. All the students were later released after negotiations.
February 26, 2021: Bandits kidnapped 317 female students of Government Girls Secondary School Jangebe, Zamfara State, in an early morning raid on their school. One of the students died while the rest were later released after negotiations.
March 12, 2021: Armed bandits kidnapped 27 students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna State. The students were released after negotiations, nearly two months after they were abducted.
April 21, 2021: About 17 students of Greenfield University were kidnapped by armed bandits in Kaduna State. The bandits killed five of the students and released the remaining 14 who were held captive for more than a month. The families of the victims admitted paying over N100 million ransom before the students were released.
May 30, 2021: 169 pupils were kidnapped at Salihu Tanko Islamic school, Tegina, Niger State. Many of the students are reportedly ill and still with their abductors as of press time.
June 11, 2021: Bandits kidnapped eight students and some lecturers at Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic, Zaria, Kaduna State. The students were still with their abductors at the time of this report.
June 17, 2021: Armed bandits overpowered police officers and kidnapped 80 school children and five teachers at the Federal Government College Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State. Three students have died while seven have been rescued by the Nigerian Army.
The kidnappings are horrific, but there’s also the huge impact on education in Nigeria as schools are being closed, parents’ saying they are too afraid to send their kids back and all of these happening in a country with 10 million boys and girls already out of school.
