More than 200 children are abducted from Nigerian school in raid linked to Boko Haram terror group

Suspected jihadists kidnapped more than 200 pupils during a raid on a school in northwest Nigeria on Thursday, according to reports.

Witnesses said the pupils in Kaduna State were in the assembly ground at 8.30am (7.30am GMT) when dozens of gunmen riding motorcycles stormed the school.

The students, aged between eight and 15, were then rounded up and taken away by the armed men - along with one of their teachers - one witness told the BBC.

Kidnappings for ransom are common in Africa's most populous country, where heavily armed criminal gangs have targeted schools and colleges in the past, especially in the northwest, though such attacks have abated recently. 

However, the last week has seen an uptick in mass kidnappings after dozens of displaced people were feared to have been kidnapped by Boko Haram jihadists some 500 miles away in Gambaru, in north-eastern Nigeria's Borno State, earlier this week.

Suspected jihadists kidnapped more than 200 pupils during a raid on a school in northwest Nigeria on Thursday, according to reports. Pictured: A woman cries at the school in Chikun, Kaduna State as she pleads with authorities to help rescue the kidnapped children 

Nigeria army trucks are seen parked at the school were suspected jihadist gunmen kidnapped school children in Chikun, Nigeria, on Thursday, March 7, 2024

A teacher, local residents and officials reported the attack, with witnesses saying the pupils in Kaduna State were in the assembly ground at 8.30am (7.30am GMT) when dozens of gunmen riding motorcycles stormed the school (pictured)

Thursday's attack happened in Chikun, Kaduna - a region of Nigeria controlled by Ansaru, a breakaway faction of the insurgent terror group Boko Haram, which has been responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people in recent years.

The jihadist group has carried out massacres - including the killing of 59 schoolboys in February 2014, and other mass abductions - most famously the April 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, in Borno State.

As of June 2023, over 90 of the Chibok girls remain missing.  

Local government officials in Kaduna State confirmed the kidnapping attack on Kuriga school on Thursday, but gave no figures as they said they were still working out how many children had been abducted.

One witness said that it could have been as many as 287: 125 from the local primary school and 187 from a secondary school. It added 25 had already returned.

At least one person was shot dead during the attack, local residents said.

Sani Abdullahi, one of the teachers at the GSS Kuriga school in the Chikun district, said staff managed to escape with many students when the gunmen attacked the building early on Thursday firing gunshots in the air.

'We began working to determine the actual figure of those kidnapped,' he told local state officials visiting the school. 

'In GSS Kuriga, 187 children are missing, while in the primary school, 125 children were missing but 25 returned.'

Local resident Muhammad Adam also told France's AFP news agency more than 280 have been kidnapped.

'Early in the morning, before we got up, we heard gunshots from bandits, before we knew it they had gathered up the children and taken away the students and their teachers, almost 200 people,' another local resident Musa Mohammed said.

'We are pleading to the government, all of us are pleading, they should please help us with security.'

Mohammed and another resident also said around 200 people were abducted.

Nigerian army trucks are seen parked outside the school in Chikun on Thursday

People gather around an area were gunmen kidnapped school children in Chikun, Nigeria, Thursday, March 7, 2024

Local officials and police did not give any figures for the kidnapped. 

Often figures of those reported kidnapped or missing in Nigeria are lowered after people fleeing the attack return home.

'As of this moment we have not been able to know the number of children or students that have been kidnapped,' Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani told reporters in Kuriga on Thursday.

Hundreds of schoolchildren and college students have been kidnapped in mass abductions in the country's northwest and central region, including in Kaduna, in the last few years.

Almost all were released for ransom payments after weeks or months spent in captivity in camps hidden in forests that stretch across northwestern states.

Amnesty International condemned the abductions in Kaduna.

'Schools should be places of safety, and no child should have to choose between their education and their life,' the rights group said on X, formerly Twitter.

'The Nigerian authorities must take measures immediately to prevent attacks on schools, to protect children's lives and their right to education.'

Since coming to office in May, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made reducing insecurity one of his priorities.

BBC reporter James Menendez told the British broadcaster from northern Nigeria this morning that authorities have claimed Boko Haram is 'all but defunct' and that its remaining fighters have been either arrested or converted. 

However, he said, 'I think what these last two incidents reveal is that the group still very much has a presence in northern Nigeria and is still capable of carrying the kind of attacks [like] the abduction of the Chibok girls 10 years ago in Borno.'

What's more, Nigeria's armed forces are battling on several fronts, including against a long-running jihadist insurgency in the northeast of the country.

Nigerian soldiers hold up a Boko Haram flag that they seized after retaking the town of Damasak, Nigeria, March 18, 2015 (file photo)

More than 100 people were missing after militants carried out a mass kidnapping last week targeting women and children in a camp for those displaced by the conflict in the northeast.

Last September, gunmen abducted more than 30 people, including 24 female students, in a raid in and around a university in northwest Zamfara State.

In February 2021, bandits raided a girls' boarding school in the town of Jangebe in Zamfara, kidnapping more than 300 students.

Perhaps the most famous kidnapping was of 276 from the town of Chibok.

On the night of 14-15 April 2014, girls aged between 16 and 18 - mostly Christian - were kidnapped by the Boko Haram jihadist group.

The school had been closed for four weeks due to the deteriorating security situation in the region, but the girls were in school to take final exams.

The militants broke into the school pretending to be soldiers from the Nigerian Security Forces, killing one soldier and a police officer in the process.

Across the five-hour attacks, several houses in the town were burned down.

According to accounts from girls who have since escaped, the militants had intended to steal a piece of machinery and were unsure what to do with the girls.

Eventually, they ordered the girls to leave with them, loading some into vehicles.

Others were ordered to walk for miles until other trucks took them away.

Of the schoolgirls, 57 managed to escape immediately by jumping from the trucks, while others have since been rescued by Nigerian Armed Forces.

However, almost ten years on from the attack, over 90 of the Chibok girls are still missing. Some are presumed to be dead.

The BBC's Menendez said that while the abduction of the Chibok was 'almost an accident', the attention it received 'spurred [Boko Haram and other bandits] to do more of those types of abductions. 

Jihadist group Boko Haram has carried out massacres - including the killing of 59 schoolboys in February 2014, and other mass abductions - most famously the April 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, in Borno State

Sculptures created by French artist Prune Nourry, Inspired by ancient Nigerian Ife terracotta heads, titled 'Statues Also Breathe,' represent the remaining 108 Chibok still in captivity. The statures are seen displayed in Lagos, Nigeria, on December 13, 2021

Asked whether the kidnappings were ideological or about making money, he said: 'I think it's evolved to become more of a way of making money.

'A lot of those armed gangs in the north west live in a part of the country that is incredibly impoverished, where opportunities for advancement for young people, particularly young men, are very few,' Menendez explained.

'And therefore this is an easy way to make money.

'Desperate parents will often pay a ransom, you know, regardless of how much they ask. And it's also an opportunity for Boko Haram to elevate its profile nationally and internationally to show the world that it's still a group to be contended with.'