ABUJA, Nigeria: Days before gunmen stormed a high school in northwestern Zamfara state and abducted hundreds of schoolgirls, school authorities and local security agencies had been warned that there was danger in the city. especially in the area where the school is located, according to local residents.
On Friday, heavily armed militants confiscated at least 315 girls who were staying at the Jangebe City Government Girls ’High School. The militants arrived by motorcycle around 1:30 a.m. local time, and the abducted girls marched into the nearby forest, leaving the victims ’family members bewildered and anxious. Residents said “strange men” had been patrolling the school area and intimidating members of the local community around the school days before the kidnappings took place.
“Suddenly we saw strange men in the street [leading to the Government Girls’ Secondary School] at night pretending to be vigilantes, “Danlami Umar, who lives near the school, told The Daily Beast.” They stopped passers-by and asked them where they were going. “
The men had been occupying the school neighborhood for two days before the incident, harassing pedestrians and encouraging residents to alert police officials of their activities.
“As soon as we reported them, they disappeared from the area,” Umar said. “We then told police officers to tighten security in the school area, but that was not done.”
But those living near the school were not the only ones to express concern about the security situation in the area. Some family members, according to The Daily Beast, had asked school authorities to close the boarding house and allow the girls to attend classes as day students due to growing reports of criminal activity in areas. close. His pleas fell on deaf ears.
“People were complaining that gunmen had been assaulted at night by their homes and that their children were constantly harassed, so some parents asked the school to close the pension in case any criminal decides to visit any day school, “Jibril Abubakar, whose niece attends school but is not among the missing, told The Daily Beast.
“Unfortunately, someone at the school said the authorities could not close the dormitories alone, claiming that they had to receive approval from the state ministry of education before doing so,” Abubakar added.
Concerns about their children’s safety had forced some parents to prevent their children from returning to their dormitories, rather than having them attend school as day students, according to Abubakar. The move could have saved more girls from being abducted on Friday.
“Some parents saw this coming and did what was right by keeping their daughters away from the pension,” Abubakar said. “Otherwise, more than 500 girls from the school would have disappeared today.”
No group has yet claimed responsibility for Friday’s abductions, which occurred more than a week after 42 people, including 27 schoolchildren, were abducted in a similar attack on a government school in northeastern Nigeria. The boys have not yet been recovered.
Nearly 24 hours after Jangebe’s schoolgirls were abducted, so far a joint operation with police and the army has not been able to identify her location. “There is information that they were relocated to a neighboring forest and we are tracking and exercising caution,” Zamfara State Police Commissioner Abutu Yaro told a news conference on Friday afternoon.
Growing insecurity in parts of northwestern and north-central Nigeria, especially after the abduction of hundreds of schoolchildren in Katsina state last December, has forced state governments in two regions to close internships in vulnerable areas. The Zamfara government waited until Friday’s kidnappings before taking similar action. But for many in the troubled city of Jangebe, the decision came too late.
“If they had acted on time, the girls would have been with their families and no one would ask the military to find their daughters,” Abubakar said. “This indifferent attitude of the government must cease.”