Nigerian Official Says In excess of 300 Kidnapped Schoolboys Freed | World News

By CARLEY PETESCH and HARUNA UMAR, Associated Press

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Additional than 300 schoolboys abducted very last 7 days by armed men in northwest Nigeria have been produced, the Katsina State governor mentioned Thursday.

In an announcement on Nigerian point out Television, NTA, Gov. Aminu Bello Masari reported the 344 boarding university students were turned above to stability officers and ended up staying introduced to the capital of Katsina, where by they will get actual physical examinations prior to remaining reunited with their families.

“I assume we can say … we have recovered most of the boys, if not all of them,” Masari mentioned. He did not disclose if the federal government paid out any ransom.

President Muhammadu Buhari welcomed their launch, calling it “a massive aid to their family members, the total place and to the global neighborhood,” according to a statement from his place of work. Amid an outcry versus the West African country’s authorities more than insecurity in the north, Buhari mentioned his administration’s prosperous endeavours to secure the launch of beforehand kidnapped college students and additional that the management “is acutely aware of its accountability to protect the daily life and home of the Nigerians.”

“We have a ton of perform to do, specially now that we have reopened the borders,” Buhari explained, noting that the Northwest location “provides a problem” that the administration “is identified to offer with.”

Boko Haram claimed responsibility for last Friday’s abduction of the college students from the all-boys Govt Science Secondary University in the Katsina Point out village of Kankara. The jihadist team carried out the attack since it believes Western instruction is un-Islamic, factional leader Abubakar Shekau claimed in a video clip earlier this 7 days. A lot more than 800 college students were in attendance at the time of the attack. Hundreds escaped, but it was thought that much more than 330 were taken.

The governing administration had mentioned it was negotiating with the attackers, originally described as bandits. Industry experts say the attack was probable carried out by area gangs, who have staged progressively fatal assaults in northwest Nigeria this year, and could perhaps have been collaborating with Boko Haram. Armed bandits have killed far more than 1,100 people today since the commencing of the yr in the region, in accordance to Amnesty International.

For far more than 10 yrs, Boko Haram has engaged in a bloody marketing campaign to introduce strict Islamic rule in Nigeria’s north. Thousands have been killed and a lot more than 1 million have been displaced by the violence. The team has been predominantly active in northeast Nigeria, but with the abductions from the college in Katsina point out, there is get worried the insurgency is increasing to the northwest.

Mothers and fathers of the missing pupils have been accumulating each day at the college in Kankara. Information of the students’ launch arrived soon immediately after the release of a online video Thursday by Boko Haram that purportedly showed the abducted boys.

In the far more than 6-minute video seen by Connected Push journalists, the apparent captors convey to 1 boy to repeat their demands that the govt connect with off its look for for them by troops and aircraft.

The video clip circulated widely on WhatsApp and initial appeared on a Nigerian information web page, HumAngle, that often reviews on Boko Haram.

Usama Aminu, a 17-calendar year-previous kidnapped student who was sooner or later equipped to escape, told the AP that his captors wore army uniforms. He claimed he also observed gun-toting teenagers, some youthful than him, aiding the attackers.

He explained the kidnapped boys tried out to support every single other as bandits flogged them from guiding to get them to move quicker and forced them to lie down less than huge trees when helicopters were heard over.

Aminu escaped at night. He was in a position to return residence after being identified by a resident in a mosque who gave him a modify of clothing and funds.

Govt officials stated previously this week that police, the air drive and the military tracked the kidnappers to a hideout in the Zango/Paula forest.

Katsina point out shut down all its boarding colleges to prevent other abductions. The close by states of Zamfara, Jigiwa and Kano also have closed educational facilities as a precaution.

Masari said the federal government will get the job done with the law enforcement to boost personal security at the Kankara university “to make sure that we really do not working experience what we have professional in the final 6 days.”

Only just one policeman was doing the job at the faculty when it was attacked.

Friday’s abduction was a chilling reminder of Boko Haram’s past attacks on educational facilities. In February 2014, 59 boys ended up killed when the jihadists attacked the Federal Government Higher education Buni Yadi in Yobe point out.

In April 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped a lot more than 270 schoolgirls from a govt boarding college in Chibok in northeastern Borno condition. About 100 of those ladies are still missing.

In 2018, Boko Haram Islamic extremists brought again practically all of the 110 girls they had kidnapped from a boarding faculty in Dapchi and warned: “Don’t ever place your daughters in faculty all over again.”

Petesch noted from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press reporters Lekan Oyekanmi in Katsina, Nigeria and Bashir Adigun in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed.

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