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At least 333 students remain missing since the attack late Friday at the Government Science High School for boys in the northwestern state of Katsina.
FILE: The attack was initially attributed to armed groups known locally as “bandits,” which are active in the volatile region where kidnapping for ransom is common. Image: AFP
KANO, Nigeria – The jihadist group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of hundreds of school children in northwestern Nigeria on Tuesday.
“I am Abubakar Shekau and our brothers are behind the kidnapping in Katsina,” the leader of the group who was also behind the 2014 kidnapping of hundreds of schoolchildren in Chibok said in a voicemail message.
At least 333 children remain missing since the attack late Friday at the Government Science High School for boys in the northwestern state of Katsina.
Initially, the attack was attributed to armed groups known locally as “bandits,” who are active in the volatile region where kidnapping for ransom is common.
The army said Monday it had located the men’s hideout and that a military operation was underway.
More than 100 armed men on motorcycles stormed the rural school north of Kankara city, forcing the children to flee and hide in the surrounding bushes.
Several children were able to escape, but many were captured, divided into groups and taken away, residents told AFP.
The kidnappings occurred in the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari, who condemned the attack and ordered that security in schools be tightened, with the closure of schools in Katsina state.
Tuesday’s liability claim marks a major turning point in the advancement of jihadist groups in northwestern Nigeria.
Boko Haram and a splinter group from the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) are waging an insurgency in northeastern Nigeria and are believed to have only a minor presence in the northwest.
But concern has grown over jihadist incursions into the region, especially after fighters claiming to be in the northwest released a 2020 propaganda video swearing allegiance to the Boko Haram leader.
Buhari has made fighting the group a priority, but the security situation in northern Nigeria has deteriorated since his 2015 election.
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