In a new chapter in Nigeria’s ongoing violence, gunmen seized around 300 children from schools in two northern states on March 7 and 9. Although unidentified, the attackers are believed to be in league with the jihadist forces that have held the country to ransom for the past 15 years.
A map showing one of the schools where the abductions took place. Google
In Kuriga, in Kaduna State, armed men abducted around 280 pupils aged eight to 15 from two schools on March 7. Two days later, gunmen kidnapped a further 15 children from a school in Sokoto, also in the northwest. In Nigeria, the latest atrocities are being attributed to “bandits.” But CSI sources in the area blame Islamist terrorists, possibly linked to the jihadist terror group Boko Haram.
The attack in Kuriga is the biggest mass abduction in years. It comes ten years almost to the month after Boko Haram stormed a school in Chibok, in the north east, abducting 276 Muslim and Christian girls. Many have since regained their freedom, but close to 100 remain in the hands of their captors.
Boko Haram is centered in the north east where it continues to carry out sporadic attacks. On February 29, militants seized over 300 people from a camp for the displaced in the Boko Haram heartland of Borno State.
But offshoots of Boko Haram are active in other areas of the north. In the case of the Kuriga abductions, CSI’s sources say the finger of suspicion points at Ansaru. This militant group broke away from Boko Haram in 2012 and is known for terror activities that include kidnap for ransom operations.
“The so-called bandits who carried out the abduction are working hand in hand with elements of Ansaru, an al-Qaeda affiliated group operating mainly in the north west,” journalist Steven Kefas told CSI. He noted that Ansaru has cells in Birnin Gwari, a terror stronghold in Kaduna State. Kuriga is situated close to Birnin Gwari.
Hassan John, an Anglican priest and journalist, shares Kefas’s assessment. Working with CNN, John broke the news of the abduction of the Chibok girls in 2014.
“Although they have not claimed responsibility, the different factions of the Ansaru terrorist group carried out the well-organized kidnapping of over 300 schoolchildren in Kaduna and Sokoto states,” John said.
“For about eight years now Ansaru has collaborated with Fulani Islamist militia groups and has devastated communities in central Nigeria. It has killed villagers, targeted Christian communities and kidnapped hundreds of people. It has collected billions of Nigerian Naira in ransom from poor villagers and families we know,” he added.
The southern part of Kaduna state is majority Christian. It forms part of Nigeria’s “Middle Belt” region, which is home to hundreds of indigenous people groups, mostly Christians. For years now, well-armed Fulani militias have been waging a campaign of terror against villages across the Middle Belt. Their aim is apparently to displace the Middle Belt’s Christian population from their ancestral lands. Southern Kaduna has been one of the epicenters of this violence.
Kuriga is in Chikun local government area of central Kaduna, which is also largely Christian.
While the latest abductions do not appear to have been targeted at Christians, they were among the victims.
As to the likely motive, Kefas said, “I believe the abduction is meant to send a strong message to the authorities that the terrorists are still very much active in the region following media reports that they have been decimated in recent times.
“As a country we are obviously back to the dark days of school abductions where schools are forced to shut down due to threats from militants.”
For his part, John believes the Nigerian government has provided protection and cover for the various militia groups killing and kidnapping people in the north.
“Even though a court ruled in 2021 that the groups were terrorist the government still chooses to downplay this by calling them ‘bandits’,” John said.
Neither does the government appear to be concerned by the armed kidnappings which have become a regular occurrence in northern Nigeria, according to John.
“The government makes a lot of noise when there is media attention for such large kidnappings, especially of schoolchildren. But it goes quiet when the noise settles down.”
“Ransom will be paid, the children will be released and the circle will start all over again because the Nigerian government lacks both the political will and the capacity to stop the killings and kidnappings and is too arrogant to admit it,” John said.
