Amid freed Nigeria schoolboys’ joyful reunions, concern lingers

By Lekan Oyekanmi and Sunday Alamba | Connected Press

KANKARA, Nigeria — Nigeria’s freed schoolboys have reunited with their joyful parents after staying held captive for just about a week by gunmen allied with jihadist rebels in the country’s northwest.

Relieved mother and father hugged their sons tightly on Saturday in Kankara, where a lot more than 340 boys have been abducted from the Govt Science Secondary university on the night of Dec. 11. Other families satisfied their sons in Ketare, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) away. A lot more boys went to their households further more absent in Katsina condition.

“When I listened to our boys were being freed, I was whole with joy and joy mainly because I could not rest, I could not consume,” Murjanatu Rabiu, a mom of just one of the boys, said.

“We ended up crying, not knowing the condition that they have been in,” she mentioned. “When we saw them, we ended up so joyful even nevertheless they came back again with wounds … and very hungry.”

Many of the schoolboys expressed be concerned about returning to university, stating their captors threatened them with demise if they went back to lessons. Nigeria’s Boko Haram jihadist rebels claimed obligation for the abductions, stating they attacked the faculty for the reason that they consider Western instruction is un-Islamic.

“Fear gripped me when they stated if they ever see us in university once more, that they will destroy us,” said freed Kankara student, Usman Mohammad Rabiu. “I was critically concerned.”

The 13-12 months-old boy explained to how the pupils ended up forced at gunpoint to trek many miles through the bush, with no foodstuff or water. His ft experienced sores from the hike throughout the tricky terrain. He said his feet were so agonizing that he could not wander and he was aided by an older boy who carried him on his back. He claimed he does not want to go back again to faculty.

“The motive why I’ll not go again to university is because I am imagining if I go back to college the bandits will destroy me and then I’ll not see my parents once more,” mentioned Usman. “That’s the purpose why I will not go back again again.”

Following getting produced by their captors, the schoolboys were bused to Katsina, the provincial funds, the place they satisfied with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday. The president appeared to lower the traumatic abduction, telling the boys they should not be deterred in existence by “this minimal problems.”

A further abduction of extra than 80 college students took place Saturday night in an location close by, but the pupils were being speedily rescued by stability forces following a fierce gun struggle, police declared Sunday.

Saturday night’s attempted kidnapping took location in Dandume, about 64 kilometers (40 miles) from Kankara, the city in which the previously kidnapping of schoolboys occurred.