GUSAU, Nigeria (AP) – Hundreds of Nigerian girls kidnapped last week from a boarding school in the northwest of the country have been released, a state governor said on Tuesday, as the West African country faces a wave of kidnappings at schools.
The girls, 10 and older, dressed in light blue hijabs and barefoot, huddled in the conference room of the Zamfara State Government House. They seemed calm, talking to each other while sitting in long lines while journalists photographed them. They will have a medical examination before being returned to their parents.
Zamfara Governor Bello Matawalle said 279 girls were released after being kidnapped at the Government Junior High School for Girls in the city of Jangebe on Friday. The government said last week that 317 were kidnapped. It was not clear whether the higher number was a mistake or if some girls were still missing.
“Alhamdulillah! (God be praised!) I am happy to announce the release of the kidnapped students, ”said Matawalle in a Twitter post on Tuesday. “I recommend all well-meaning Nigerians to rejoice with us, as our daughters are now safe.”
Authorities said “bandits” were behind the kidnapping, referring to groups of armed men operating in the state of Zamfara and kidnapping for money or to demand the release of their members from prison.
At the time of the attack, a resident told the Associated Press that the armed men also attacked a nearby military camp and a checkpoint, preventing soldiers from responding to the school.
One of the girls reported the night of her abduction to the AP.
“We were sleeping at night when we suddenly started hearing shots. They were shooting non-stop. We got out of bed and people said we should run, that they are thieves, ”she said. The authorities ended the interview before the girl could give her name.
The attackers finally found her and some classmates and aimed the guns at their heads, she said.
“I was too scared to be shot,” she said, adding that they asked for information on how to get to the employees’ quarters and the director. “We said that we don’t know who she is.”
Nigeria has seen several of these attacks and kidnappings in recent years, the most notable in 2014, when 276 girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram’s high school jihadist rebels in Chibok, Borno state. More than 100 of these girls are still missing.
Boko Haram is opposed to Western education and its fighters often target schools. But most attacks in the northwest are perpetrated by armed criminal groups without this ideology.
The police and the military have been trying to rescue the girls from the Zamfara kidnapping, which has caused international outrage. Authorities did not say whether a ransom was paid for his release.
“We have been discussing since Friday with the kidnappers and we reached an agreement on Monday,” said the governor, adding that he would ensure additional security in all schools in the state.
President Muhammadu Buhari expressed “overwhelming joy” at the girls’ release.
“I join with the families and people of the state of Zamfara to welcome and celebrate the release of these traumatized students,” he said in a statement. “Being held captive is a distressing experience not only for the victims, but also for their families and for all of us.”
The president called for greater vigilance to prevent bandits from carrying out such attacks – but warned that paying for the release of the victims would result in further aggression.
Ernest Ereke of Abuja University agreed that the bailouts are allowing criminal groups to buy more weapons and expand their power.
And the Nigerian state seems increasingly weak to respond, he said.
“It is a lucrative enterprise in a country where many young people are impoverished, unemployed and hungry,” he said. “The state, which must face these criminals, is empowering them, always obeying their dictates. It should be the other way around, that is, criminals should be afraid of the state, but in this case, it is the state that is afraid of criminals ”.
“If the state is not able to crush them,” he added, “it means that something is wrong with the Nigerian state.”
On Saturday, 24 students, six employees and eight relatives were released after being kidnapped on February 17 at the Kagara Government School of Science in the state of Niger. In December, more than 300 students from a secondary school in Kankara, in northwest Nigeria, were taken away and later released. The government said that no ransom was paid for the release of the students.
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Olukoya reported from Lagos, Nigeria. AP copywriter Carley Petesch in Dakar, Senegal, contributed