By Seun Sanni and Afolabi Sotunde
JANGEBE, Nigeria (Reuters) – Gunmen in Nigeria on Saturday released 27 teenagers kidnapped from their school last week in the north-central state of Niger, while security forces continued to search for more than 300 kidnapped students in a nearby state.
Schools have become targets of mass kidnappings for rescue in northern Nigeria by armed groups.
On February 17, 27 students, three employees and 12 members of their families were kidnapped by an armed gang that invaded the government’s high school of science in the Kagara district of Niger state, overloading the school’s security detachment. A boy was killed during the invasion.
After their release, the boys were seen by a Reuters witness walking with armed security through a dusty village, some struggling to get up and ask for water. A government official said the boys were between 15 and 18 years old.
The release comes just a day after the operation at a school in the state of Zamfara, where armed men arrested 317 girls. Police on Saturday set up a girls’ hunt while parents waited at the school compound for news about their daughters.
One, Lawal Muhammed, expected his daughter to be released, saying the kidnappers wanted a ransom that could be paid.
“These … are already looking for rescue, so I know and believe that when the government makes a deal with them, they will be able to release our daughters,” he told Reuters.
The school kidnappings in Nigeria were initially carried out by jihadist groups Boko Haram and the West African Islamic State Province, but the tactic has now been adopted by other militants whose agenda is unclear.
In a statement on Friday, the presidency said that President Muhammadu Buhari asked state governments “to review their policy of rewarding bad guys with money and vehicles, warning that the policy could be a disastrous boomerang.”
The unrest has become a political problem for Buhari, a retired general and former military ruler who has faced growing criticism because of gang attacks known locally as “bandits”.
Buhari replaced his longtime military chiefs this month amid worsening violence.
In December, armed men broke into a school in northwestern Katsina state and kidnapped around 350 boys, who were later rescued by security forces.
The highest profile school kidnapping was that of more than 270 students kidnapped by Boko Haram from the city of Chibok in 2014. About 100 of them are still missing.
(Reporting by Seun Sanni, Afolabi Sotunde, Maiduguri Newsroom and Alexis Akwagyiram in Lagos; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Alexander Smith and Mark Potter)