Meetings with her parents began late in the day.
“Since this incident happened, I have not been able to sleep, but now I can sleep,” said Salisu Kankara, father of one of the schoolchildren who was released.
The relatively rapid release of the more than 330 boys came after a quick response from the government, which seems to have learned from previous mass school kidnappings, especially from Chibok school girls, which had no result. so happy.
The students’ nightmare began on the night of December 11, when they were confiscated by gunmen AK-47s from the government science high school in the village of Kankara, in the northern state of Katsina. western Nigeria. They marched through a forest and were forced to lie on the ground amid battles between their captors and the troops pursuing them.
The boys described walking through the bush and different woods, stopping during the days and walking at night without shoes, stepping on thorns and stones.
Nigeria’s Boko Haram jihadist rebels claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, saying they attacked the school because they believed Western education was not Islamic.
While the boys ’parents anxiously awaited any news, many from Nigeria and around the world were preparing for a long hostage situation. Many feared that the boys would be forced to become child soldiers of Boko Haram.
But the kidnapping reached an unexpectedly satisfactory climax when Katsina Governor Aminu Bella Masari announced the release of 344 boys on Thursday night.
“I think we can say … we’ve recovered most of the guys, if not all of them,” he said.
Masari told The Associated Press that no ransom was paid to guarantee the boys’ freedom. It is not known if other concessions were made.
Masari said the government will work with police to increase security at Kankara School and other schools. Only one police officer was working at the school when she was attacked, according to the students.
The kidnapping of schoolchildren was a gruesome memory of Boko Haram’s previous attacks on schools, especially the April 2014 mass kidnapping by Boko Haram of more than 270 schoolchildren at a government boarding school in Chibok, northeast of the state of Borno. About 100 of these girls are still missing.
“The difference, we know in this case, is that the government moved faster,” said Bulama Bukarti, an analyst for sub-Saharan Africa at the Tony Blair Institute.
In Chibok, it took weeks for Nigerians, celebrities and the international community to defend and protest before the government acknowledged that the girls had been abducted and took action. During this time, Boko Haram had the opportunity to put the girls in smaller groups and move them away so that it would be difficult to find them.
This time, the government deployed forces quickly after the kidnapping of the boys and the kidnappers were quickly surrounded, Bukarti said.
Its release is “a fantastic story at the end of a terrible week,” he said. “Parents will reunite with their loved ones … all of Nigeria will breathe a sigh of relief to get a good ending.”
UNICEF Representative in Nigeria Peter Hawkins called on the attackers to release any other child who could be detained from this or other attacks.
“Schools should be safe. Children should never be the target of attacks, and although, all too often in Nigeria, they are just that: victims of attacks on their schools,” he said.
He called on the Nigerian government to implement better interventions “to ensure that schools are safe and that all Nigerian children can learn without fear”.
President Muhamadu Buhari welcomed the release of the boys and met with all of them on Friday, encouraging them to continue their education despite the attack and kidnapping they endured.
“This little difficulty you have encountered in life should not deter you. You will have to prepare, make ginger and pursue your dreams in life,” he said. “Since I went to school, I have risen to become president twice, so education is the key to success. Do the best you can to acquire education and even knowledge. religious to guide you and your family in the future. “
Following his release on Thursday afternoon, Buhari said his government must do more to protect schools from such attacks and to protect the lives and property of Nigerians, recognizing that the Northwest represents a real challenge for his administration.
There are many thorny issues left in Nigeria.
The hijacking shows that Boko Haram has been able to recruit armed gangs in northwestern Nigeria, a worrying sign as criminal gangs have stepped up attacks in the region this year and killed more than 1,100. While the bandits have no ideological motivations, Bukarti said, it has become clear that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has been able to form alliances with some of them.
“Shekau started courting some of the bandits,” Bukarti said in January, referring to a video released by Boko Haram leader explaining his ideology and in which he spoke the last 15 minutes in Fulani, the language of the majority. of the bandits of the country. in the northwest, including those who spoke in the video released by Boko Haram this week. Boko Haram later claimed they had penetrated parts of the northwest.
While this future may not be clear, boarding school kidnapping proves there was a clear recruitment and Bukarti says he would now go so far as to call some of these local Boko Haram associate gangs.
Boko Haram could extend its reach to the northwest, he said, adding that they also got publicity.
“This was a big propaganda point and this is what Boko Haram and terrorist groups survive,” he said.
While the government’s reaction to this kidnapping was swift (they had a rescue mission the next day), criticism remains about how the government is dealing with violence and how it will continue to grow in the West African nation.
Many Nigerians blame Buhari for security flaws in the country and the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) says the kidnapping of students in Katsina, the president’s home state while visiting there, raises serious questions on the government’s ability to combat insurrection.
The PDP said President Buhari’s inability to manage Nigeria’s security has opened up the country “to terrorists, bandits, vandals and insurgents”.
The attack on the Kankara school highlights the weakness of Nigeria’s security institutions, said Professor Odion-Akhaine. He fears the country will move towards anarchy as a result of growing insecurity.
“If there is anarchy in Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, it will have a serious effect on the subregion,” he said.
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