Scholar escapes as authorities seek for 24 different women kidnapped in Nigeria : NPR

MAGA, Nigeria — A schoolgirl who was kidnapped with 24 others from a dormitory in northwestern Nigeria has escaped and is secure, the college’s principal instructed The Related Press on Tuesday, as hunters joined safety forces within the seek for the lacking college students in forests near the college.

The ladies had been kidnapped earlier than daybreak on Monday, when gunmen attacked the dorm on the Authorities Ladies Complete Secondary College in Kebbi state’s Maga city. Native police mentioned the gunmen scaled the fence to enter the college premises and exchanged gunfire with cops earlier than seizing the ladies and killing a workers member.

No group has claimed accountability for taking the ladies, however analysts and locals say gangs of bandits typically goal faculties, vacationers and distant villagers in kidnappings for ransoms. Authorities say the bandits are largely former herders who’ve taken up arms in opposition to farming communities after clashes between them over strained sources.

Mass college kidnappings are particularly widespread in northern Nigeria, and the Kebbi college is near battle sizzling spots together with Zamfara and Sokoto states, the place a number of gangs are identified to function and conceal out.

The scholar who escaped arrived dwelling late Monday, hours after the kidnapping, in accordance with the college principal Musa Rabi Magaji. One other pupil was capable of escape the gunmen within the minutes after the raid and was not kidnapped, the principal instructed AP.

“They’re secure and sound,” Magaji mentioned.

A video verified by AP reveals the 2 schoolgirls, who seem like of their early teenagers, misplaced in thought and surrounded by household and different villagers, with hijabs protecting their heads. Excessive schoolers in Nigeria are normally aged between 12 and 17.

Intensified rescue efforts

Safety forces and hunters, in the meantime, have intensified efforts to seek out and rescue the others, native officers mentioned. Safety groups swept close by forests the place gangs typically conceal whereas others had been deployed alongside main roads resulting in the college.

Kebbi Gov. Nasir Idris visited the college on Monday and warranted of efforts to rescue the ladies, and Nigeria’s Chief of Military Workers Lt. Gen. Waidi Shaibu met with troopers within the hours after the assault and directed “intelligence-driven operations and relentless day-and-night pursuit of the abductors,” in accordance with a military assertion.

“We should discover these youngsters. Act decisively and professionally on all intelligence. Success isn’t non-compulsory,” the military chief mentioned.

Households recount predawn assault

By Tuesday morning, the dorm and the classroom block — a strolling distance aside — had been abandoned. In Maga, households ready for information of their youngsters’s freedom expressed anger and frustration.

Resident Abdulkarim Abdullahi, whose daughter and granddaughter — aged 13 and 10, respectively — had been among the many kidnapped youngsters, mentioned he overheard the noise from his home.

“I used to be at dwelling after I abruptly heard gunshots from the college. We had been instructed that the attackers entered the college with many bikes,” mentioned Abdullahi.

Amina Hassan, spouse of the college vice principal Hassan Yakubu Makuku, mentioned the assailants broke into their home, which is on the college premises, and fatally shot her husband. He was additionally the college’s chief safety officer.

“Three of them entered and requested my husband, ‘Are you Malam Hassan?’ and he responded, ‘Sure, I’m.’ They instructed him that we’re right here to kill you,” she instructed the AP.

College abductions are a method to attract consideration

No less than 1,500 college students have been seized within the area since Boko Haram jihadi extremists seized 276 Chibok schoolgirls over a decade in the past. However bandits are additionally energetic within the area, and analysts say gangs typically goal faculties to achieve consideration.

Analysts and residents blame the insecurity on a failure to prosecute identified attackers, and the rampant corruption that limits weapons provides to safety forces whereas making certain a gradual provide to the gangs.

“As an instance folks have been kidnapped within the markets — it would not go far, (or) if folks have been kidnapped on the street — it would not go far,” mentioned Oluwole Ojewale, a safety analyst on the Institute for Safety Research. “What beneficial properties traction is when (it’s) strategic kidnapping, like college youngsters.”