‘You will die in the forest’

By Seun Sanni and Ismail Abba

© Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde
A freed Nigerian schoolboy performs soccer as he returns property, after he was rescued by safety forces, in Kankara

KANKARA, Nigeria (Reuters) – Annas Shuaibu claims he awoke to the audio of gunshots fired by adult males who burst into his boarding faculty in northwest Nigeria in a nighttime raid. He and hundreds of other boys have been rounded up and forcibly marched out of the faculty and into a nearby forest.

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Just after quite a few hours trekking via woodland, the gunmen ordered them to stop strolling and warned them not to test to flee, Shuaibu explained. “They explained even if you tried out to escape, or we allowed you to run, you will go nowhere. Fairly, you will die in the forest,” he claimed.

Shuaibu, 16, was amid 344 students who were being kidnapped from Governing administration Science Secondary College, an all-boys boarding school, on Dec. 11 in the town of Kankara, in Katsina condition.

The boys have been held for 6 days in advance of safety products and services rescued them on Thursday from Rugu forest, a huge woodland place that spans 4 of Nigeria’s 36 states.

The incident stoked anger about the insecurity that has gripped a lot of the place, Africa’s most populous, and evoked memories of Boko Haram’s 2014 kidnapping of additional than 270 schoolgirls in the northeastern town of Chibok.

Dressed in a turquoise kaftan and smiling broadly while playing soccer with friends near his household in Kankara, Shuaibu appeared carefree a day just after staying reunited with his family members.

But the smile remaining his deal with when he explained the disorders in which he and the other boys have been held.

“I was actually terrified because I did not know the place we have been going,” he claimed, talking softly and often wanting at the ground as he explained walking by way of the forest and the boys being beaten by their captors.

Shuaibu, who reported he did not know how a lot of persons held them, claimed the boys obtained little food stuff, often resorting to taking in leaves and drinking from swimming pools of water in the forest.

A further freed university student advised Reuters, several hours soon after the boys’ release on Friday, that the kidnappers had in the beginning taken them to a hiding place.

“But when they observed a jet fighter, they improved the spot and hid us in a diverse spot. They gave us foods, but it was quite little,” stated the scholar, who did not give his title.

On Friday, with their ordeal over, the boys ended up taken to meet the governor and then President Muhammadu Buhari.

A lot of details encompassing the incident continue being unclear, including who was dependable, regardless of whether ransom was paid and how the launch was secured. The Islamist militant team Boko Haram reported it was liable for the abductions but there was no confirmation of this.

Dad and mom Worry

The pleasure of staying free has not worn off for 14-yr-old Muhammed Bello.

“Now that I returned back home, I am going to continue enjoying and do what I like,” he claimed, with a wide grin. “I’m incredibly happy.”

But the raid produced parents fearful.

Shuaibu’s father, who earlier explained to Reuters his son was 13, reported he would not deliver the boy again to the college until there was “suitable safety”.

Assaults by armed gangs, extensively regarded as bandits, are frequent during northwestern Nigeria. The teams assault civilians, thieving from them or kidnapping them for ransom.

A felony gang tried to abduct 80 schoolchildren and acquire them into a forest in the Dandume location of Katsina point out on Saturday evening, Katsina police claimed on Sunday.

All the small children were rescued, alongside with four other folks who were also abducted, immediately after police and a regional vigilante team exchanged gunfire with the gang, law enforcement spokesman Gambo Isah mentioned in a statement.

Subsequent the rescue of the boys taken from Kankara, Katsina Governor Aminu Bello Masari mentioned protection will be strengthened at colleges throughout the point out.

When the Kankara youngsters ended up reunited with their parents on Friday weeping moms and fathers hugged their boys, and some mom and dad knelt to kiss the floor in gratitude.

Shuaibu recalled his panic of never ever seeing his spouse and children once more.

“We experience really content,” he mentioned. “Some of us failed to anticipate that we would return.”

(Reporting by Seun Sanni and Ismail Abba in Kankara Supplemental reporting by Maiduguri newsroom, Ardo Hazzad in Bauchi, Garba Muhammad in Kaduna, Camillus Eboh in Abuja and Afolabi Sotunde Creating by Alexis Akwagyiram Editing by Frances Kerry)