Armed Group Abducts Secondary School Students in Nigeria

Gunmen attacked a boarding school and abducted 137 students in Chikun, Kaduna state, Nigeria, in the early hours of Monday morning.

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"At the moment we have rescued seventeen students but the number of abducted students is yet to be determined," Kaduna Police spokesperson Mohamed Jalge said.

The attackers entered Bethel Baptist College firing shots before taking about 137 students, said John Hayab, the president of the regional branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria.

Also on Sunday, eight people were abducted from the headquarters of the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Center in Zaria town, Kaduna state. Among the abductees were babies and nursing mothers.

In the past year, armed groups operating in northern Nigeria have kidnapped over 800 students in exchange for lucrative ransoms.

"Heavily-armed criminal gangs often attack villages to loot, steal cattle and abduct for ransom in the northwest and central Nigeria, but since the start of the year, they have increasingly targeted schools and colleges," ANews recalled.

On December 11, 2020, for example, the jihadist group Boko Haram abducted 344 pupils from a school in Katsina State. These pupils were released a week later in a forest in Zamfara state.

In the last kidnapping before the Bethel case, armed men abducted 14 students from Greenfield University in April. They were released alive a month later. This happy outcome, however, does not always happen.

On June 12, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari promised to put an end to the kidnappings and expressed his condolences to the relatives of the victims of the violence committed by bandits in the northwest and central parts of this African country.