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Parents of
the missing Government Science secondary school students wait for news on their
children in Kankara , Nigeria, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. Rebels from the Boko
Haram extremist group claimed responsibility Tuesday for abducting hundreds of
boys from a school in Nigeria's northern Katsina State last week in one of the
largest such attacks in years, raising fears of a growing wave of violence in
the region. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) |
Rebels from the Boko Haram extremist group claimed responsibility Tuesday for abducting hundreds of boys from a school in Nigeria’s northern Katsina State last week in one of the largest such attacks in years, raising fears of a growing wave of violence in the region.
More than 330 students remain missing from the Government
Science Secondary School in Kankara after gunmen with assault rifles attacked
their school Friday night, although scores of others managed to escape.
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People inspect a wall and metal door broken by rebels from
Boko Haram who kidnapped Government Science Secondary School students in
Kankara, Nigeria, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. Rebels from the Boko Haram extremist
group claimed responsibility Tuesday for abducting hundreds of boys from a
school in Nigeria's northern Katsina State last week in one of the largest such
attacks in years, raising fears of a growing wave of violence in the region.
(AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) |
The government and the attackers are negotiating the fate of the boys, according to Garba Shehu, a spokesman for Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The kidnappers had made contact and discussions were
already on, pertaining to the safety and return” of the children to their
homes, said Shehu on Twitter during talks with Katsina Gov. Aminu Masari.
Neither official said whether the negotiations are with Boko Haram or another
group.
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Parents of the missing Government Science secondary school
students wait for news on their children in Kankara , Nigeria, Tuesday, Dec.
15, 2020. Rebels from the Boko Haram extremist group claimed responsibility
Tuesday for abducting hundreds of boys from a school in Nigeria's northern
Katsina State last week in one of the largest such attacks in years, raising
fears of a growing wave of violence in the region. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) |
Masari said security agencies “deployed for rescue operations have also informed us that they have located their position.”
The Daily Nigerian said it received an audio message from
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau claiming the abduction, although there has
been no independent verification of its authenticity.
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People work past an empty hostel of missing Government Science
Secondary School students in Kankara, Nigeria, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. Rebels
from the Boko Haram extremist group claimed responsibility Tuesday for
abducting hundreds of boys from a school in Nigeria's northern Katsina State
last week in one of the largest such attacks in years, raising fears of a
growing wave of violence in the region. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) |
The Islamic extremist group has carried out mass abduction of students before. The most serious took place in April 2014, when more than 270 schoolgirls were taken from their dormitory at the Government Secondary School in Chibok in northeastern Borno State. About 100 of the girls are still missing.
In February 2014, 59 boys were killed during a Boko Haram
attack on the Federal Government College Buni Yadi in Yobe State.
In the audio message about Friday’s attack, Shekau said his
group abducted the schoolboys because Western education is against the tenets
of Islam.
 |
Parents of the missing Government Science secondary school
students wait for news on their children in Kankara , Nigeria, Tuesday, Dec. 15,
2020. Rebels from the Boko Haram extremist group claimed responsibility Tuesday
for abducting hundreds of boys from a school in Nigeria's northern Katsina
State last week in one of the largest such attacks in years, raising fears of a
growing wave of violence in the region. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) |
More than 600 students attend the school. Many were able to escape during a gunfight between the attackers and the police, according to state police spokesman Gambo Isah.
Students corroborated this account with various news
agencies, saying many of them were also rounded up and forced to walk to a
nearby forest, where some were also able to flee.
Several armed groups operate in northern Nigeria, where
Katsina State is located. It was originally believed that the attackers were
bandits, who sometimes work with Boko Haram.
 |
People travel past Government Science Secondary School in
Kankara, Nigeria, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. Rebels from the Boko Haram extremist
group claimed responsibility Tuesday for abducting hundreds of boys from the
school in Nigeria's northern Katsina State last week in one of the largest such
attacks in years, raising fears of a growing wave of violence in the region.
(AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) |
Bandits have operated in the northwest region for some time, and kidnappings have increased in recent years. Amnesty International says that more than 1,100 people were killed in the first six months of 2020 in violence related to attacks by bandits.
A joint rescue operation was launched Saturday by Nigeria’s
police, air force and army after the military engaged in gunfights with bandits
after locating their hideout in the Zango/Paula forest.
 |
Police officers drive past the Government Science Secondary
School in Kankara, Nigeria, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. Rebels from the Boko Haram
extremist group claimed responsibility Tuesday for abducting hundreds of boys
from a school in Nigeria's northern Katsina State last week in one of the
largest such attacks in years, raising fears of a growing wave of violence in
the region. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) |
If Boko Haram is proven to be behind the abduction, it could mean a new wave of religious extremism is on the rise in Nigeria. For more than 10 years, the group has engaged in a bloody campaign for introducing strict Islamic rule, but it has been mainly active in northeast Nigeria, not in the northwest, where Katsina State is located. Thousands have been killed and more than a million people displaced by the violence.
Nnamdi Obasi of the International Crisis Group said a shift
of Boko Haram’s activities to the northwest would have serious security
implications because it could partner with other armed criminal groups known to
carry out attacks and collect payments from households and markets.
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Parents of the missing Government Science secondary school
students wait for news on their children in Kankara , Nigeria, Tuesday, Dec.
15, 2020. Rebels from the Boko Haram extremist group claimed responsibility
Tuesday for abducting hundreds of boys from a school in Nigeria's northern
Katsina State last week in one of the largest such attacks in years, raising
fears of a growing wave of violence in the region. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) |
“They are Iike mini-armies that are able to carry out operations in defiance of the security forces, and it is worrisome,” Obasi told The Associated Press.
The local armed groups have no religious ideology, however,
and Obasi said Boko Haram’s movement into the northwest would create “a risk of
convergence between criminal groups and jihadist groups. The trajectories are
very disturbing.”
Because the northwest is more homogeneously Islam than the
northeast, there are more potential recruits for radicalism.
 |
Two women walk past the Government Science Secondary School
in Kankara, Nigeria, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. Rebels from the Boko Haram
extremist group claimed responsibility Tuesday for abducting hundreds of boys
from a school in Nigeria's northern Katsina State last week in one of the
largest such attacks in years, raising fears of a growing wave of violence in
the region. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) |
Friday’s abduction has become a rallying cry for Nigerians fed up with growing violence, with #BringBackOurBoys trending on Twitter as people express their frustrations. A similar #BringBackOurGirls became an international rallying cry for the Chibok girls.
“Before now, it has been bandits and kidnappers terrorizing
our state, but little has been done to address the situation,” said Mallam
Saidu Funtua, a member of a local civil society organization in Katsina State.
He added that “the abduction of students was the height of
it all. It is unacceptable and the government has to do more” to protect
students and residents.
The attack was a major setback for education in Katsina,
which was beginning to make progress in enrollment, he said, adding: “Our
people will be discouraged in sending their kids to school.”
Kankara villager Lawal Muhammed said the attack left most
residents terrified and traumatized.
“We have never experienced this kind of thing before,” he
said. “We want the government to do more in protecting our children, especially
now that schools would be resuming after the COVID-19 break.”
The abductions also come as Boko Haram and the Nigerian
military may be investigated for war crimes in the rebels’ insurgency, which
has lasted more than a decade.
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor last
week said a probe has found enough evidence to merit opening a full-scale
inquiry into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity by Boko Haram
extremists as well as into charges that Nigerian government forces have also
perpetrated abuses.
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said there is a “reasonable basis
to believe” Boko Haram and splinter groups linked to it committed crimes
including murder, rape, sexual slavery and torture, as well as intentionally
targeting schools and places of worship and using child soldiers. While a vast
majority of the criminality in the conflict has been carried out by Boko Haram,
prosecutors also found grounds to believe members of Nigeria’s security forces
had committed crimes, she said.
Amnesty International last week released a report saying at
least 10,000 civilians have died in Nigerian military custody since 2011 after
being detained in connection with the Boko Haram insurgency in northern
Nigeria.
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