Kano, Nigeria:
Gunmen on Sunday kidnapped scores of children from an Islamic seminary in central Nigeria’s Niger state, police and residents stated.
Some 200 children have been at the college at the time of the attack, the Niger state government stated on Twitter, adding that “an unconfirmed number” have been taken.
The abduction came a day following 14 students from a university in northwestern Nigeria have been freed following 40 days in captivity.
Niger state police spokesman Wasiu Abiodun stated the attackers arrived on motorbikes in Tegina town and began shooting indiscriminately, killing one resident and injuring one more, prior to kidnapping the children from the Salihu Tanko Islamic college.
One of the school’s officials, who asked not to be named, stated the attackers initially took more than one hundred children “but later sent back those they considered too small for them, those between four and 12 years old”.
The state government, in a series of tweets, stated the attackers had released 11 of the pupils who have been “too small and couldn’t walk” incredibly far.
Meanwhile,11children who have been also compact and could not stroll, amongst the kidnapped Islamiyya Students, have been released by the Gunmen as reports also indicates that
— Niger State Gov’t (@NigerStateNG) May 30, 2021
Armed gangs are terrorising inhabitants in northwest and central Nigeria by looting villages, stealing cattle, and taking people today hostage.
Such seizures have turn out to be a frequent way for criminals to gather ransoms.
Since December 2020, 730 children and students have been kidnapped, prior to the attack on Sunday.
On April 20, gunmen identified locally as “bandits” stormed Greenfield University in northwestern Nigeria and kidnapped about 20 students, killing a member of the school’s employees in the approach.
Five students have been executed a handful of days later to force households and the government to spend a ransom.
Fourteen of the students have been released on Saturday.
Local press stated that the households had paid a ransom totalling 180 million naira ($440,000) for their release.
The criminal gangs keep camps in the Rugu forest which straddles Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states.
Their motives have been monetary with no ideological leanings but there is increasing concern they are getting infiltrated by jihadists from the northeast waging a 12-year-old insurrection to establish an Islamic state.
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