Sun 13 December 2020:
An armed group has abducted nearly 400 male students at a boarding school in northern Nigeria, local media outlets reported on Saturday.
The attack on the secondary school took place in the morning hours in the Kankara town of the northwestern Katsina province along the Niger border.
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the attack in his home state. He said that the security forces detected the armed group hiding in the forest and an operation has been initiated.
Katsina State Police Spokesman Gambo Isah said that one officer was injured during the operation and that additional security forces would be deployed for search and rescue operations.
Murja Mohammed, whose son was taken, begged authorities for help.
“If it’s not government that will help us, we have no power to rescue our children,” she told Reuters news agency.
State spokesman Abdul Labaran said military and intelligence chiefs were in Kankara to lead the rescue. While 321 students were missing, he said some could have gone home to other states. Some boys seen in the area reportedly said they had escaped from the forest where the gunmen took them.
“We will not rest until we see the end of this,” Labaran told Reuters.
Abubakar Lawal came from Zaria, a city 120km (75 miles) south of Kankara, after learning that two of his three sons at the school were among the missing.
“From yesterday I was here, praying that the almighty Allah should rescue our people,” he said on Sunday, outside the dusty school grounds.
The State Governor Aminu Masari ordered the closure of all boarding schools in the state after the attack.
The use of motorcycles has been banned in some states because, in some recent attacks, the culprits had used motorcycles.
The region is occasionally witnessing violent clashes between Fulani ethnic group, who are engaged in rearing animals, and some other tribes who live on farming.
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