JANGEBE, Nigeria (AP) – Families in Nigeria have anxiously awaited the news of their abducted daughters after more than 300 schoolgirls were abducted by gunmen from a government school in the north of the country last week, the latest in a series of mass school kidnappings in the West African nation.
Concerned parents gathered at the school on Sunday, guarded by police. Aliyu Ladan Jangebe said his five daughters were between the ages of 12 and 16 at the school when the kidnappers stormed. Four were taken away, but one escaped by hiding in a bathroom with three other girls, he told The Associated Press.
‘We are not in a (good) mood, because if you have five children and you can (only) secure one. We only thank God … But we are not happy, ”Jangebe said.
“We can not imagine them,” he said of his missing daughters. Residents of a nearby village said the kidnappers looked after the girls like animals through the village, he said.
One resident said the gunmen also attacked a nearby military camp and checkpoint, preventing soldiers from responding to the mass abduction.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said the government’s priority is to get all hostages back safely and unharmed. Police and the army have launched joint operations to rescue the girls, said Mohammed Shehu, a Zamfara state police spokesman.
The kidnapping of the girls caused international outrage.
Pope Francis rejected the kidnapping and prayed for the speedy release of the girls during his public speech at St.
“I pray for these girls so they can return home soon … I’m close to their families and to them,” Francis said, asking people to pray with him.
Last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the abductions, calling for the girls to be “released immediately and unconditionally” and to return safely to their families. He called attacks on schools a serious violation of human rights and the rights of children, said UN spokeswoman Stephane Dujarric.
Nigeria has seen several such attacks and kidnappings in recent years. On Saturday, 24 students, six staff and eight family members were released after being abducted from Government Science College Kagara in the state of Nigeria on February 17. In December, more than 300 schoolboys from a high school in Kankara, in northwestern Nigeria, were taken and later released. The government said no ransom was paid for the release of the students.
The most notorious kidnapping was in April 2014, when 276 girls were abducted by Boko Haram jihadist rebels from Chibok High School in Borno State. More than 100 of the girls are still missing.
Boko Haram is opposed to Western education and its fighters are often targeted at schools. Other organized armed groups, called locally bandits, often kidnap students for money. The government says it is known that large groups of armed men in the state of Zamfara have been kidnapped for money and that they have released pressure for the release of their members who are in jail.
According to analysts, Nigeria’s criminal networks can plan more such kidnappings if this round of kidnappings goes unpunished.
“While improving community policing and security in general remains a long-term challenge, in the short term, authorities must punish those responsible for sending a strong message that there will be no tolerance for such acts,” Rida Lyammouri said. senior fellow at the New South Policy Center, a Moroccan think tank.