By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent
ABUJA (Worthy News) - Parents were praying and hoping their children were alive Friday after gunmen kidnapped more than 200 school pupils in northwestern Nigeria in the biggest mass abduction from a school in a decade.
The kidnappings, the second such incident in less than a week, happened shortly after morning assembly at the Local Government Education Authority School in the town of Kuriga in Nigeria’s troubled Kaduna state, sources explained.
“We don't know what to do; we are all waiting to see what God can do. They are my only children I have on Earth," Fatima Usman, whose two children were among those abducted, told Reuters news agency.
Another parent, Hassan Abdullahi, said local vigilantes tried to repel the gunmen but had been overpowered. “Seventeen of the students abducted are my children. I feel unfortunate that the government has neglected us completely in this area," Abdullahi added.
Residents say the government-owned school in Kaduna State’s Kuriga town just as the pupils and students were about to start the school day at around 8 a.m.
“We will ensure that every child will come back. We are working with the security agencies,” the governor told villagers in the area located 55 miles (89 kilometers) from the capital.
Authorities said earlier that more than 100 students were taken hostage in the attack.
287 MISSING
Sani Abdullahi, the headteacher, however, told Kaduna state Governor Uba Sani when he visited the town that the total number of those missing after a headcount was 287.
“We will ensure that every child will come back. We are working with the security agencies,” the governor told villagers in the area located 55 miles (89 kilometers) from the capital.
The attack occurred days after more than 200 people, primarily women and children, were reportedly abducted by extremists in northeastern Nigeria.
Separately last month, at least six children and three teachers were freed after suspected Muslim Fulani herdsmen kidnaped them and the driver of a Christian school busin late January in Nigeria's Ekiti State, officials said.
However, the driver of the bus, owned by the Apostolic Nursery and Primary School in the state’s town of Emure-Ekiti, was killed, according to authorities.
Women, children, and students are often targeted in the mass abductions in the conflict-hit northern region, and many victims are released only after paying huge ransoms.
Observers say the attacks are a reminder of Nigeria’s worsening security crisis, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, many of them Christians, in recent years.
MORE ABDUCTIONS
Abductions of students from schools in northern Nigeria are common and have become a source of concern since 2014 when Islamist group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 Christian schoolgirls from their dormitory in Borno state’s Chibok village.
The kidnappings, which sparked worldwide condemnation, remain an open wound in the West African nation, with 98 of the victims still missing, according to rights group Amnesty International.
More than 3,600 people were reported abducted in Nigeria last year — the highest number in five years, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.
The actual number is likely much higher as many episodes go unreported.
Among those targeted were often Christians, confirmed John Joseph Hayab, a pastor working in the region.
He noted that just in the first two months of 2024, scores of believers lost their lives, while at least 100 Christians were kidnapped during the first part of January.
“As a church leader in Kaduna state, I know the difference between attacks that are mainly to convert people to religion. I know also attacks that are for money,” Hayab told the Mission Network News service.
RELIGIOUS GROUND
“What is happening in northern Nigeria today has a lot of religious ground, the pastor noticed.
“They [the perpetrators] could kidnap other people, whether they are Christians or Muslims, and just collect money and then go. But for killing, they restrict that to Christians, especially pastors,” he stressed.
“There’s a deliberate ploy to ensure that Christians suffer.”
President President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has promised to improve security.
But critics say failed to reign -in Islamic fighters, ranging from groups of herders to Boko Haram, which seeks to impose Islamic law in several parts of the country.
Tinubu, a 71-year-old former governor of the capital, Lagos, was elected president in February in what observers called “the closest race” in Nigeria’s modern history.