[EN.ALGHADEERTV.NET] Armed men kidnapped 73 children from a school in the northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara in the latest mass abduction in the region, police said in a statement on Wednesday.Police said a large number of armed bandidos invaded the Government Day Secondary School in the village of Kaya in rural Zamfara state at 11:22 am local time (1022 GMT)."The command ... has deployed search and rescue team that was mandated to work in synergy with the military to ensure the safe rescue of the kidnapped students," Zamfara police front man Mohammed Shehu said in the statement.
Armed gangs seeking ransoms have kidnapped more than 1,100 pupils in more than a dozen attacks on schools or colleges across northwest Nigeria since December 2020, adopting a tactic first used by Islamist holy warriors in the northeastern part of the West African nation.
Zamfara’s government ordered all statewide schools to close to prevent further attacks, Ibrahim Dosara, the state’s information commissioner, told Rooters by telephone. Police said they had also increased security around Kaya to prevent further attacks on the community.
A staff member at the school told Rooters by phone that the school had more than 500 children enrolled.
Zamfara is among four states in northwest Nigeria that have taken measures to try to curb the security crisis. They have banned the sale of fuel in jerry cans and the transport of firewood by truck in hope of disrupting gangs who travel by cycle of violence
and camp out in forests.| Al Ahram adds: |
But violence has escalated sharply with the emergence of large criminal gangs who steal cattle, raid and loot villages and kidnap for ransom.
Armed gangs often arrive on motorbikes during their abduction attacks and also engage in castle rustling.
They operate out of camps hidden in forests in northwest Nigeria, often raiding and abducting in one state and crossing back with their victims into another state.
This year bandidos have turned their sights on schools, seminaries and colleges across the region, herding children and students deep into forest hideouts while they negotiate ransom payments.
Many students have been released only after spending weeks or months in captivity. Dozens are still being held.
The bandidos are seeking financial gain and have no known ideological leanings, but there are growing worries among security experts and officials over their ties with jihadists fighting a 12-year war in Nigeria's northeast.