About 150 students are missing after armed men raided a boarding school in Nigeria’s Kaduna state, a parent and an administrator said yesterday, and police said they were in hot pursuit alongside military personnel.
The attack on the Bethel Baptist High School is the 10th mass school kidnapping since December in northwest Nigeria, which authorities have attributed to armed bandits seeking ransom payments.
Dozens of distraught parents gathered at the school compound, some weeping and crying out, standing in groups awaiting news. Discarded sandals lay strewn nearby. Dormitories containing metal bunk beds and cupboards were deserted.
“May God take away their tears and the suffering that they will face in the hands of the kidnappers,” said a woman pointing at a hole in the school’s perimeter where the attackers entered.
His voice breaking, parent John Evans said he had recently told his daughter that God would protect her while she studied at the school.
“Just this morning at about 6, I received a phone call that they have entered the school...kidnappers, that all our children are packed (taken), including my daughter,” he said. “We rushed down here, we confirmed that they are all packed.”
Police said gunmen shooting wildly attacked overnight and overpowered the school’s security guards, taking an unspecified number of students into a nearby forest. A police statement said 26 people including a female teacher had been rescued.
Reverend John Hayab, a founder of the school, told Reuters about 25 students had managed to escape while the school’s other students remained missing.
Roughly 180 students attended the school and were in the process of sitting exams, according to Hayab, whose 17-year-old son escaped, and parent, Hassana Markus, whose daughter was among those missing.
Local residents who declined to be identified told Reuters that security officials had cordoned off the school after the attack, which took place between 11pm on Sunday and 4am yesterday morning.
Armed men, known locally as bandits, have made an industry of kidnapping students for ransom in northwest Nigeria, with Kaduna state particularly hard hit. They have taken nearly 1,000 people from schools since December last year, more than 150 of whom remain missing.
Kidnappers have also targeted roads, private residents and even hospitals.
Shoes of the abducted students lie on the floor. (AFP)
8 employees kidnapped from medical centre
Eight medical centre employees were kidnapped in northwest Nigeria on Sunday, police said, although local sources said more people had been taken.
A large number of unidentified armed men attacked Kaduna state’s Saye Tuberculosis and Leprosy Health Centre at around 1500 GMT, after a “heavy exchange of fire” with officers, local police spokesman Mohamed Jalige said.
“Eight people were kidnapped,” he said, adding they were presumably taken for ransom.
Local sources said 15 people had been abducted, including two nurses and their baby.
They said the large number of attackers had forced officers to flee.
“The truth is that the police abandoned their station after violent exchanges of fire,” a Saye resident told AFP.
“The attack on the police station was a distraction whilst another group attacked the dormitories of the health centre workers,” another neighbour said.
