[ad_1]
By AFP 
2h ago
Kano, Nigeria – Nigerian authorities on Sunday stepped up their efforts to rescue students abducted by gunmen who raided their shelters.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF condemned the assault on the school in Katsina, the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Gunmen on motorcycles stormed the Government Science School in Kankara late on Friday and clashed with security forces in a fierce shooting, forcing hundreds of students to flee and hide in the surrounding bushes and forests.
State Governor Aminu Bello Masari, who visited the school on Saturday, said the soldiers were working to locate and free the hostages.
“Soldiers are currently in the bushes fighting bandits. We will do everything possible to ensure that all abducted children are recovered,” he said.
National police spokesman Frank Mbas said “additional investigative and operational assets had been deployed to support ongoing search and rescue operations in Kankara.”
Masari said it was not yet clear how many students were “in the hands of bandits” and how many had managed to escape.
“The school has a population of 839 and so far, we still have 333 students to account for,” Masari told a delegation from the federal government in his office on Sunday.
“We keep counting because more are coming out of the forest,” said the governor.
“Until now, no one can give a precise number of kidnapped children,” he said, adding that the escaped students confirmed that some of their classmates were kidnapped.
Masari ordered the school to count the students to determine who returned home.
‘Cowardly bandits’
Osama Aminu Maale was one of the students who escaped from the kidnappers and returned to his parents.
“There were a total of 520 of us who were taken away by gunmen from the school,” the 18-year-old student told AFP by phone.
“After they took us, we stopped inside the bus where they had the older students do a count. We counted 520,” he said.
The hostages split into groups before Maale and four others escaped.
“One of the gunmen beat me repeatedly when I couldn’t keep up with the rest of the group due to poor health before letting me go on, giving me a chance to escape,” he said.
Since the attack, all high schools in the state have been closed.
UNICEF in a statement on Sunday said that it “condemns in the strongest possible terms this brutal attack and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all children and their return to their families.”
The world body for children said it was “deeply concerned by these acts of violence.”
“Attacks on schools are a violation of children’s rights. This is a grim reminder that child abductions and widespread gross violations of children’s rights continue to occur in northern Nigeria.”
UNICEF congratulated the Nigerian government for deploying security forces to rescue the students.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also condemned Sunday’s attack and called for the student’s release in a statement issued by his spokesman.
Guterres “reaffirms the solidarity and support of the United Nations to the Government and people of Nigeria in their fight against terrorism, violent extremism and organized crime,” the statement said.
Buhari on Saturday urged security forces to arrest the gunmen.
“I strongly condemn the attack by cowardly bandits against innocent children at Kankara School of Sciences. Our prayers go out to the families of the students, the school authorities and the wounded,” he said.
Katsina is among several areas in northwestern Nigeria that have been repeatedly attacked by “bandits” that they kidnap for ransom and steal livestock.
[ad_2]
