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Abuja, Nigeria
A wave of militant attacks on schools in Nigeria over the past week has left more than 80 children missing, local officials and a rights group said Sunday.
The incidents are the latest in a long series of school abductions in the West African country, where the government is fighting jihadi groups and other armed militants. Attackers targeted a primary school in the conflict-battered northeastern state of Borno between Wednesday and Thursday, abducting 42 children in the Askira Uba and Chibok areas near Sambisa Forest (a stronghold of Boko Haram and its Islamic State-affiliated splinter group).
Separately, two secondary schools in southwestern Oyo state were attacked hours apart on Friday, with at least 40 children abducted, according to Amnesty International’s Nigeria branch. A local government official put the number at 48 in that incident. Such abductions are relatively rare in the southwest.
Amnesty International warned that the ongoing threat is pushing many children out of school. Families are also withdrawing underage girls and forcing them into early marriage in an attempt to protect them from potential attacks.
Peter Wabba, a government official from the affected area in Borno, said authorities have assured families they are working to rescue the children, but none have been recovered so far. In the Oyo attack, police said three gunmen were arrested after being identified by the community.
School abductions have become a grim hallmark of insecurity in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, especially in the north. Armed groups often view schools as soft targets that generate maximum attention and pressure on the government. Last year, two major mass abductions from schools drew national and international outrage. The rights group criticized authorities for repeatedly failing to investigate incidents thoroughly or deliver justice to victims and their families.
