Armed men broke into a college in northwest Nigeria and kidnapped 39 students, in the latest mass kidnapping against a school.
The gang broke into the Federal College of Forest Mechanization in Mando, Kaduna State, at around 9:30 pm (2030 GMT) on Thursday, shooting indiscriminately before taking students. Kaduna High School would have about 300 male and female students – most of them aged 17 or older – at the time of the attack.
Kaduna State Homeland Security Commissioner Samuel Aruwan said 39 students were missing while the army rescued 180 people after a battle with the armed men. “Additional checks after the attack by armed bandits … indicate that 39 students are currently missing,” including 23 women and 16 men, Aruwan said in a statement late on Friday.
He had initially said that 30 students were missing.
Aruwan said the state government “is maintaining close communication with the college administration, as the efforts of security agencies are being maintained in tracking missing students.”
The commissioner said some of the rescued students were injured during the operation and were being treated at a military hospital.
Police and the military stood guard around the college on the outskirts of Kaduna city on Friday afternoon, while anxious parents and families waited for news. A jet fighter flew overhead.
“We have confirmed by your colleagues that our daughter Sera is with the kidnappers,” Helen Sunday told reporters, with tears streaming down her face. “I call on the government to help rescue our children.”
Heavily armed gangs in northwest and central Nigeria have intensified attacks in recent years, kidnapping for ransom, rape and looting. The bandits recently turned their attention to schools, where they kidnap students or children in search of ransom. Thursday’s attack was at least the fourth such attack since December.
Massive kidnappings in the northwest are complicating the security challenges facing President Muhammadu Buhari’s security forces, who are also battling an Islamic insurgency for more than a decade in the northeast.
The area is known for banditry and armed robberies, mainly along the highway that connects the city to the airport. Gangs are largely driven by financial reasons and have no known ideological tendencies. Victims are usually released soon after the negotiations, although the authorities always deny any ransom payment.
On February 27, armed men kidnapped 279 students in the state of Zamfara. And a week earlier, gunmen apprehended 42 people, including 27 students at a boarding school for boys only in the state of Niger. In December, hundreds of students were apprehended in Katsina, Buhari’s home state, while he was visiting.