According to officials, armed bandits have kidnapped more than 100 schoolchildren in Kuriga, northwestern Nigeria.
The bandits are said to have broken into the LEA Primary School in Kuriga, Kaduna State, on Thursday, grabbing dozens of students before marching them to the forest.
The event is said to have happened at 8 a.m. on Thursday, just after the morning assembly. According to reports, the school’s headmaster and some other staff members were among the victims.
“With pain in my heart, I visited Kuriga, Chikun Local Government, where bandits kidnapped primary and secondary school pupils and students,” wrote Senator Uba Sani, Kaduna State Governor, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Proactive measures need to be taken to safeguard our schools against terrorists.”
According to ABC News, when the bandits were spotted on the school grounds, the majority of the students fled. According to reports, the armed attackers entered the school grounds on motorcycles.
The mass kidnapping is the latest in a series of abductions in northern Nigerian schools, with the episodes becoming a source of concern for the country.
As of Friday, no group had claimed responsibility for the mass kidnapping.
Boko Haram militants abducted approximately 200 schoolgirls in Chibok village, Borno State, in 2014.
“Hope has risen that we can have some of them back again,” a parent of one of the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls told ABC News in 2021, anxiously expecting the girls’ arrival, despite the fact that dozens of them are still in captivity.
According to the International Centre for Counterterrorism, kidnappings and forced abductions are becoming increasingly common among women and children.
On Friday, Sani promised to return all of the abducted children while government officials worked with the school’s administration to confirm the number of missing students.
According to Sani, the episode has highlighted the need for state police.
“Proactive measures need to be taken to safeguard our schools against terrorists,” Sani went on to say. “With State Police, there will be a standing police force in Kuriga made up of community members who understand the geography, the people, and the issues at hand. They are adept at gathering intelligence. They will also be constitutionally permitted to carry weapons, including sophisticated ones. This is significant because vigilante organizations are not permitted to own firearms.”
