At least 287 school children, some as young as eight years
old, are being held by gunmen who raided their school in Nigeria’s northwestern
Kaduna State early Thursday, a police spokesperson told CNN Friday.
More than 300 students were taken early Thursday by the
armed bandits on motorcycles who stormed the LEA Primary and Secondary School
in the Kuriga village of Kaduna’s Chikun district, the state’s police spokesman
Mansur Hassan said.
Some of the students were rescued but 287 of them remain
with the kidnappers, Hassan said.
“Students were kidnapped from the school premises on
Thursday morning around 8:00 am (local time). About 287 students are still in
the hands of the bandits, 100 from the primary side and 187 from the secondary
school,” Hassan said, adding that “over 300 students were initially kidnapped,
but some were rescued.”
Earlier, Reuters reported that 227 children were kidnapped,
citing a teacher, local councilor, and parents of the missing children. Several
other reports including the Washington Post and a local outlet report 287,
citing the school’s headteacher.
CNN cannot independently verify these figures.
Governor of Kaduna state, Uba Sani said in a statement
Thursday that his government was “doing everything possible to ensure the safe
return of the pupils and students” kidnapped.
Sani also said a member of the community who confronted the
abductors during the attack was killed, adding that the President of Nigeria
and the National Security Adviser were aware of the situation, and a Security
Committee and a military base will be established in Kuriga to strengthen
security in the area.
Kaduna state, which borders the Nigerian capital Abuja to
the southwest, has grappled with recurring incidents of kidnappings for ransom
by bandits and has witnessed several mass abductions in recent years, including
in the district where LEA Primary and Secondary School is located.
In 2021, at least at least 140 students were kidnapped by
armed men from a private secondary school. The incident came just months after
around 20 students from a private university in Chikun’s Kasarami village were
abducted by gunmen, five of whom were killed after a ransom deadline was not
met, family members told CNN at the time.
