GUSAU, Nigeria (AP) – Hundreds of Nigerian girls abducted last week from a boarding school in the northwest of the country have been released, a state governor said on Tuesday, while the West African nation faces a series of school kidnappings .
The girls, aged 10 and over, dressed in light blue and barefoot hijabs, entered the conference room of the Zamfara state government house. They appeared quiet, chatting to each other as they sat in long lines while reporters photographed them. They will receive a medical check-up before being returned to their parents.
Zamfara Governor Bello Matawalle said 279 girls had been released on Friday after being abducted from the government high school for girls in Jangebe city. The government said last week that 317 had been abducted. It was unclear if the highest number was a mistake or if some girls were still missing.
“Alhamdulillah! (God be praised!) My heart rejoices to announce the release of the abducted students, “Matawalle said in a Twitter post early Tuesday.” I ask all well-meaning Nigerians to rejoice with us as our daughters are safe now. “
Officials said there were “bandits” behind the kidnapping, referring to groups of gunmen operating in Zamfara state and kidnapping for money or to push for the release of their members from prison.
At the time of the attack, a resident told The Associated Press that the gunmen also attacked a nearby military camp and checkpoint, preventing soldiers from responding at the school.
One of the girls recounted the night of her abduction to the AP.
“We were sleeping at night when suddenly we started hearing gunshots. They were shooting non-stop. We got out of bed and people said we had to run, they are thieves, ”he said. Officials finished the interview before the girl could give her name.
The attackers found her and some classmates and took weapons to her head, she said.
“She was very scared of being shot,” he said, adding that they asked the staff department and the director for directions. “We said we don’t know who he is.”
Nigeria has seen several such attacks and kidnappings in recent years, most notably in 2014, when 276 girls were abducted by Boko Haram jihadist rebels from Chibok High School in Borno State. More than 100 of these girls are still missing.
Boko Haram opposes Western education and its fighters often go to schools. But most attacks in the Northwest are perpetrated by armed criminal groups without this ideology.
Police and the military have tried to rescue the girls from the kidnapping of Zamfara, which sparked international outrage. Officials did not say whether a ransom had been paid for his release.
“Since Friday we have been in discussions with the kidnappers and we reached an agreement on Monday,” the governor said, adding that it would ensure additional security for all schools in the state.
President Muhammadu Buhari expressed “overwhelming joy” for the release of the girls.
“I join the families and people of Zamfara state to welcome and celebrate the release of these traumatized students,” he said in a statement. “Staying in captivity is a harrowing experience not only for the victims, but also for their families and for all of us.”
The president called for greater vigilance to prevent the bandits from carrying out these attacks, but warned that paying money for the release of the victims would only lead to more assaults.
Ernest Ereke, of the University of Abuja, agreed that rescues allow criminal groups to buy more weapons and expand their power.
And the Nigerian state seems increasingly weak to respond, he said.
“It’s a lucrative business in a country where many young people are impoverished, jobless and hungry,” he said. “The state, which should confront these criminals, always allows them to spread their dictates. It should be the other way around, that is, criminals should be afraid of the state, but in this case, it is the state that is afraid of criminals.
“If the state is not able to crush them,” he added, “it means something is wrong with the Nigerian state.”
On Saturday, 24 students, six officials and eight relatives were released after being abducted on February 17 from Government Science College Kagara, in the state of Niger. In December, more than 300 schoolchildren from a secondary school in Kankara, northwestern Nigeria, were later arrested and released. The government has said no ransom has been paid for the release of the students.
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Olukoya reported from Lagos, Nigeria. AP writer Carley Petesch contributed to Dakar (Senegal)