Gunmen have kidnapped hundreds of students and academics from two faculties in Nigeria within the worst case of abductions since greater than 270 women from Chibok city had been snatched from their faculty in 2014.
The Christian Affiliation of Nigeria (CAN) mentioned on Sunday that fifty pupils had escaped and had been reunited with their households days after they had been kidnapped from a Catholic faculty in central Niger state.
So what do we all know in regards to the newest abductions? And why are kids being focused by armed teams?
What occurred?
Gunmen kidnapped 303 kids and 12 academics throughout an assault on Saint Mary’s Catholic College in Nigeria’s north-central Niger state, based on CAN, the most important Christian organisation within the nation. Native media reported that the abductions and assault occurred on Friday in Niger’s distant Papiri space.
These kidnapped included each female and male college students aged 10 to 18, mentioned Reverend Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, the chairman of CAN’s Niger chapter. Yohanna visited the college campus on Friday.
The assault occurred simply days after gunmen focused the Authorities Women Complete Secondary College within the neighbouring Kebbi state’s Maga city, 170km (106 miles) away, and kidnapped 25 schoolgirls.
No group has claimed the latest acts of abductions.
What number of kids are nonetheless lacking, and what’s the standing of the rescue operation?
Fifty of the youngsters escaped captivity on Friday and Saturday and have been reunited with their households.
Because of this 253 kids are nonetheless being held by kidnappers. The 12 academics who had been kidnapped are additionally nonetheless in captivity.
The Nigerian authorities mentioned tactical squads, alongside native hunters, have been deployed to rescue the youngsters and college employees.
Who’s behind the kidnappings?
No group has claimed duty for the kidnapping.
Ibrahim M Ndamitso, a journalist who has been following this story very carefully, informed Al Jazeera that the incident occurred within the north of Niger, which has “predominantly suffered banditry exercise in latest occasions”.
Ndamitso, who relies in Minna, the capital of Niger state, added that the bandit teams have made “it a transit level across the north of Niger, taking animals, stealing individuals’s cows, selecting individuals for ransoms and all of this stuff”.
Bulama Bukarti, a safety analyst and a Nigerian human rights lawyer primarily based in London, informed Al Jazeera that such kidnapping assaults, particularly within the northwest and the north-central elements of Nigeria, are carried out for financial motives.
“What these gangs do usually is to maintain these kids in captivity for weeks, typically months, and extort ransoms from both their households or from the federal government,” Bukarti mentioned.
“These ransoms can run into tons of of {dollars}, tons of of hundreds of {dollars} earlier than releasing them.”
Are these kidnappings religiously motivated?
It’s unlikely.
Instances of kidnapping, particularly for ransom, are on the rise in Nigeria. Nevertheless, they’re carried out by amorphous teams of armed bandits.
These bandits don’t appear to be affiliated with any spiritual or armed teams resembling Boko Haram or the ISIL affiliate in West Africa Province (ISWAP), whose assaults are motivated by a sectarian agenda.
As of 2020, Muslims made up a majority of Nigeria’s inhabitants, accounting for 56.1 p.c of the inhabitants, whereas Christians comprised 43.4 p.c, based on estimates by the Pew Analysis Heart.
The latest abductions have introduced again the reminiscence of the mass kidnapping of ladies from Chibok, Nigeria, dozens of whom are nonetheless lacking almost 12 years later.
Armed group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 female students from Chibok in Borno state in April 2014. Among the kidnapped had been Muslims. Many captives had been inspired to transform to Islam, whereas others had been compelled to affix Boko Haram or to marry fighters from the group.
Between 2016 and 2017, the Nigerian navy rescued or secured the discharge of 108 women via prisoner exchanges, and about 20 others escaped prior to now two years. As of final 12 months, about 90 of the women kidnapped in Chibok nonetheless stay lacking.
Greater than 1,400 Nigerian college students have been kidnapped since 2014. The latest kidnapping case is the thirteenth such incident prior to now 11 years, Bukarti, the safety analyst and lawyer, informed Al Jazeera.
Are Christians being focused in Nigeria?
Christian farming communities have been going through elevated assaults in central Nigeria from bandits and cattle herders. They’ve accused the federal government of failing to arrest perpetrators and supply safety.
The latest assaults on faculties and some churches have drawn the eye of US President Donald Trump, who has claimed that Nigeria’s Christians are going through genocide. He has threatened United States navy intervention in Nigeria, alleging that the nation is failing to guard Christians from persecution. He additionally threatened to chop support to Nigeria.
“If the Nigerian Authorities continues to permit the killing of Christians, the USA will instantly cease all support and help to Nigeria, and should very nicely go into that now disgraced nation, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to fully wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who’re committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump wrote in a social media submit.
Pope Leo XIV has additionally known as for the discharge of the kidnapped college students.
“I make a heartfelt enchantment for the quick launch of the hostages and urge the competent authorities to take acceptable and well timed choices to make sure their launch,” the pope mentioned on Sunday.
Nigeria’s authorities has admitted to a safety drawback, however has denied the claims that Christians are being persecuted.
The federal government has dubbed a few of the assaults, attributed to the largely Muslim Fulani pastoral ethnic group, a “native farmer-herdsmen disaster”.
Christian teams in Nigeria have additionally rejected the assertion that religion was the only cause behind the assaults and kidnappings. The Christian Affiliation of Nigeria mentioned that international teams had been seeking to exploit home crises.
How is the federal government responding?
On Friday, Nigeria’s authorities ordered 47 faculties throughout the nation to shut instantly. Moreover, the regional authorities of Niger state has ordered all faculties, whether or not personal or public, to be closed down, Ndamitso mentioned.
“Lots of of colleges are closed proper now, and subsequently our youngsters’s training might be interrupted,” Bukarti mentioned. “It is extremely unlucky as a result of this means that the Nigerian training system is beneath assault.”
On Sunday, throughout a gathering with safety chiefs, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu ordered the hiring of 30,000 extra law enforcement officials. He moreover ordered that law enforcement officials be faraway from VIP safety providers in order that they’ll give attention to core duties, particularly in distant areas which are susceptible to assaults.
The federal government has additionally declared that Nigeria’s minister of defence might be deployed to Niger State, Ndamitso famous.
Nigeria is suffering from safety issues as Boko Haram is waging a lethal riot within the northeast and as prison gangs function within the northwest. The nation has additionally been racked by communal violence.
Greater than 10,000 individuals have been killed and tons of kidnapped since Tinubu was elected president in 2023. As many as three million individuals stay displaced by the violence.
