HUNDREDS OF KIDNAPPED NIGERIAN SCHOOLBOYS RELEASED, LOCAL GOVERNOR SAYS

Fri 18 December 2020:

More than 300 schoolboys kidnapped in northern Nigeria have been handed over to government security, the Katsina state governor said in a televised interview.

“The abducted students of the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara have been rescued, the Katsina State Government has confirmed the news,” Bashir Ahmad, personal assistant to Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari said on Twitter.

The abducted students of the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara has been rescued, the Katsina State Government has confirmed the news. Alhamdulillah!

— Bashir Ahmad (@BashirAhmaad) December 17, 2020

Katsina state Governor Aminu Bello Masari said in a televised interview with state channel NTA that 344 boys held in the Rugu Forest in neighbouring Zamfara state had been freed.

“I think we have recovered most of the boys,” he said.

Earlier, a presidential aide said the schoolboys had been freed, but it was unclear how many were released amid continuing uncertainty about how many were abducted from their all-boys school last Friday in Kankara, a town in Katsina state.

Masari said Nigeria security forces had cordoned off the area where the boys were being held and had been ordered not to fire their weapons.

“We had already established indirect contact to try to make sure that we secure the release of the children unharmed,” he said. “We thank God that they took our advice and not a single shot was fired.”

The students were kidnapped last Friday from the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara.

In an audio recording, a man identifying himself as the leader of Boko Haram claimed on Tuesday that the armed group was responsible for the abduction.

The kidnapping has gripped Nigeria and raised growing concerns and anger about insecurity and violence in the country’s north.

President Muhammadu Buhari welcomed the students’ release and asked for patience while his administration dealt with security issues.

I welcome the release of the kidnapped students of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara. This is a huge relief to the entire country & international community. The entire country is grateful to Governor Masari, the Intelligence Agencies, the Military and the Police Force.

— Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) December 17, 2020

News of the release came shortly after a video was released by the rebels of Boko Haram that purportedly showed the abducted boys. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the abduction.

In the more than six-minute video seen by Associated Press journalists, the apparent captors tell one boy to repeat their demands that the government call off its search for them by troops and aircraft.

A voice can be heard telling the boy, who is clearly under duress, what to say from behind the camera. The youth says they were kidnapped by a gang directed by Boko Haram factional leader Abubakar Shekau and that some of those abducted from the Government Science Secondary School were killed.

The video circulated widely on WhatsApp and first appeared on a Nigerian news site, HumAngle, that often reports on Boko Haram.

Earlier on Thursday, dozens of protesters marched through the streets in the city of Katsina under the banner #BringBackOurBoys.

That hashtag has been trending on Twitter in recent days, harkening back to a campaign launched to bring home more than 200 girls abducted by Boko Haram in 2014 in the northeastern town of Chibok.

The march in Katsina was in response to a call from the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), a civil society body that focuses on the welfare of northern Nigerians. Some of the demonstrators chanted “Save northern Nigeria”.

Criminal gangs operating in the northwest have killed more than 1,100 people in the first half of 2020 alone, according to rights group Amnesty International.