abducted

Students at Government Day Secondary School in Lassa, Askira-Uba Local Government Area of Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, were preparing to sit for their National Examinations Council (NECO) Biology paper on the morning of Monday, June 29, when terrorists stormed the school, killing at least one teacher, abducting staff and students, and forcing another disruption to education in a community still reeling from a school abduction barely a month ago.

The attackers struck shortly before 9 a.m., according to school officials and residents, arriving on more than 40 motorcycles, many dressed in military camouflage and armed with AK-47 rifles. Witnesses said the assault lasted about 20 minutes before security personnel pursued the attackers into nearby bushland.

The exact number of abducted students remains unclear as authorities and school officials continue compiling names.

Imperiju Mamza, the school’s examinations officer, told HumAngle that the senior students had assembled for their Biology paper, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., when the attackers arrived. “They invaded the school some minutes to 9 a.m.,” he said.

“Only one student who is sitting for the exams was abducted. She came very early and was, unfortunately, abducted alongside the other students who were from other classes. The others are safe and are currently writing their paper,” he said.

The ongoing NECO examinations began on June 23. According to Mamza, 243 candidates registered for the examination. “Apart from the one abducted, 242 are currently writing their exams,” he said. “I am trying to compile names of those abducted and cannot yet confirm how many were taken.”

Following the attack, candidates were relocated under armed protection to Government Girls Secondary School, Lassa, where the Biology examination continued.

Teachers killed, others abducted

Residents who witnessed the aftermath said the attackers appeared to target the school directly rather than the wider community.

Timothy Apagu, whose shop is located near the school, said the community had received reports as early as 7 a.m. that armed men had been sighted around Muthalavu village on the outskirts of Lassa. Community vigilantes were deployed towards the Dille axis after residents raised the alarm, believing the gunmen were approaching from that direction.

“Unfortunately, another team of terrorists followed a different route and attacked the community,” he said.

Apagu said the attackers went straight into the school. “They did not enter the community. I suspect it was a targeted attack.”

He said more than 40 motorcycles participated in the raid. “Most were wearing military camouflage. Others were wearing black trousers. Some wore boots while others wore bathroom slippers. From afar, you would know they were terrorists.”

According to Apagu, one teacher died at the scene while another, who sustained gunshot injuries, later died at the Lassa General Hospital.

He said two teachers, a male Vice Principal identified as Mr Paul and a female teacher popularly known as Madam Angelina, were initially abducted alongside students. The Vice Principal was later rescued after security personnel pursued the attackers, while the female teacher remained in captivity at the time of reporting.

Another resident, Andrew Adamu, gave a similar account, saying security personnel rescued one teacher and five students during the pursuit and recovered six motorcycles abandoned by the fleeing gunmen.

He added that one female student escaped with gunshot injuries. HumAngle could not independently verify these rescue figures.

Security response

The military and local vigilantes immediately pursued the attackers into nearby bushland, residents said. Adamu said one soldier and one vigilante were killed during the pursuit.

“There is a military base here, but the soldiers are few. They are not more than 50,” he said. “The school and the military base are less than a kilometre apart.”

The Borno State Police Command confirmed the attack but said the number of abducted students remained unverified. Nahum Kenneth Daso, the Police Public Relations Officer, said the Area Commander for Askira-Uba had deployed to the scene alongside other officers.

Asked what security measures had been introduced after last month’s abduction of more than 40 schoolchildren in nearby Mussa, Daso said police deployments around schools in the area had been increased.

“The challenge we had in Lassa is that the school does not have a fence,” he said. “When the invasion happened, they took advantage of that.” 

Mamza said school authorities had repeatedly raised concerns about the absence of perimeter fencing following the Mussa attack. “The Government Day Secondary School has no fence, and we have complained to the government following the Mussa incident,” he said. He explained that the school is located about a kilometre from the town centre and shares a boundary with the Lassa Vocational Training Centre.

When contacted, Mada Saidu, the Chairperson of Askira-Uba LGA, declined to discuss the attack, saying he was channelling his time and efforts into coordinating the emergency response, which he felt was more important than speaking to journalists.

The latest attack comes barely a month after dozens of schoolchildren were abducted in neighbouring Mussa, also in Askira-Uba LGA, renewing fears over the security of schools across southern Borno despite assurances that protective measures had been strengthened.

Residents were thrown into despair after a terrorist leader, Jammo Smally, abducted 39 community leaders who had gone to discuss a peace deal with him. The dramatic incident occurred on Sunday, June 7, in the Maradun Local Government Area (LGA) of Zamfara State, North West Nigeria.

Jammo had been sending messages to the leaders in the Magamin Diddi community for over two months, calling for a meeting to discuss the terms of the peace deal as the rainy season approached. The terrorist leader, whose parents live in a hamlet not far from Magamin Diddi, had claimed he was tired of the hostility between his terror group and the community.

Following another invitation a few days after the Islamic Eid al-Kabir celebrations, the traditional and religious leaders decided to meet Jammo and his gang members in the forest. The two parties agreed to meet on Sunday to reach what the community leaders thought would be a peaceful solution to the recurrent attacks on their farms and homes.

“The first thing he asked when we reached there was the whereabouts of the three rifles the Askarawa took away from his boys two months ago,” Malam Aliyu, one of those who went to strike the deal, told HumAngle over the phone on  Monday. He had joined 46 other community leaders to strike the deal. “We were confused at first, because we were told that we would be discussing only a peace deal. We thought that he would ask us to give him money, but the first thing he asked was for his rifles.” 

“Askawara” is a local term for security volunteers of the state-backed Community Protection Guards (CPG) in Zamfara State. Local sources told HumAngle that towards the end of March, terrorists from the Jammo group had a gunfight with the CPG fighters and other vigilante group members, leading to the killing of two terrorists. Three rifles belonging to the terrorists were taken away by the CPG fighters. 

“We didn’t take his guns, but it’s obvious he has made up his mind,” Aliyu said. The terrorist leader released seven community leaders, instructing them to report back to the district head with his demands. He has one condition for the release of the 39 elders: either the rifles are returned, or an equivalent amount of money must be paid to him.

The terrorist leader also set ₦50 million for the peace deal. “He said if we’re still interested in negotiating with him, we should add ₦50 million to the rifles we’re returning. The money is for us to be able to live in peace, go to local markets, and go to our farms,” the community leader said.

Negotiations between terrorists and local communities aiming to establish peace are not uncommon in the ongoing crisis plaguing the northwestern region for over a decade. Typically, these discussions involve communities paying substantial sums to the terrorists under the guise of a peace agreement. However, such negotiations often yield little result, as terrorist attacks continue unabated even after agreements are reached, as seen in various regions of the state.

The Zamfara State government has consistently maintained its stance against negotiating with terrorists. Yazid Abubakar, the Zamfara State Police spokesperson, stated that they have initiated a rescue operation to free the captured individuals. 

“Upon receipt of the report, the Zamfara State Police Command immediately initiated efforts to trace the victims’ whereabouts and secure their safe rescue. Operational assets have been deployed, and security operatives are working on available intelligence to locate the abducted persons,” Yazid Abubakar said in a statement on Monday.

Hours after residents went to bed on the morning of Wednesday, June 3, sounds of gunshots pierced through the air as terrorists circled an off-campus hostel housing some students of the Federal Polytechnic Kaura Namoda in Zamfara State, northwestern Nigeria. The hostel, located in the Low-cost area, is meters away from a military checkpoint, according to residents. 

Students at the polytechnic had increasingly been moving into off-campus housing to avoid being abducted from their school.

As fear of what might happen enveloped people, the terrorists compromised the gate of the hostel and took away eight students of the polytechnic. Even as they fled with the students, they continued to fire shots in the air.

“Two of the students, Favour and Joshua Sunday, escaped while being taken away by the terrorists,” a resident who simply gave his name as Musa told HumAngle. “My house is not far from Oga Bulu’s house, which shares a wall with the house the students live in. I heard the gunshots and heard when they were leaving with the students.”

Since 2015, terrorists have terrorised the sub-region. Their activities have led to the death of thousands of people and the displacement of over a million. Attacks on schools and students have been on the increase since 2020, when terrorists stormed Government Science Secondary, Kankara and abducted 300 pupils.

Zamfara, which is considered the hotbed of the crisis, has recorded several school abductions in Jangebe, where over 300 schoolgirls were abducted, in Federal University, Gusau, where 24 students were abducted, and at the College of Agriculture and Animal Sciences, Bakura, where 15 students were abducted. 

Musa, the source, says Joshua Sunday told them six students (three men and three women) have been taken.

HumAngle reports that the Kaura Namoda area and other communities in Maradun and Bungudu fall under areas where the notorious terrorist leader, Bello Dan Sadiya, controls. 

An administrative staff member of the Polytechnic, who asked not to be named, told HumAngle over the phone that several staff members of the institution have relocated to Gusau, the state capital, for fear of being attacked. “Even me, I’ve relocated my family to Gusau. We have two staff, all senior lecturers, who are still with the bandits after they were abducted two months ago,” he said.

He said a ransom has been paid for the release of the lecturers, but the terrorists have continued to hold them.

Federal Polytechnic Kaura is located on the road to Shinkafi and Zurmi LGA, two areas in the northern part of Zamfara State that have witnessed repeated terrorist attacks.

The police public relations officer in the state, DSP Yazid Abubakar, confirmed the abduction and promised to release a statement, but has yet to do so.

Local authorities blame informants for the escalation of attacks in the town centre. The Chairman of the area, Mannir Haidara Kaura, told DW Hausa that the state government has taken measures to tackle the terrorists, but informants are sabotaging the efforts.

It is Ramadan, and Bintu Suleiman, a 55-year-old mother and trader from Ngoshe in Borno State, North East Nigeria, is about to break her fast with her family.

Then, the gunshots begin, and within the hour, her home is on fire. As the terrorists round people up, she manages to slip away with her children and grandchildren into the bush. Later, she realises four of them did not make it with her. They are somewhere up in the mountains.

In this episode of #VOV, we see that, after the attack, Bintu, now displaced, is sheltering at a government primary school in Pulka and has no news of her children and grandchildren.

Reported by Sabiqah Bello

Voice acting by Rukayya Saeed

Multimedia editor is Anthony Asemota

Executive producer is Ahmad Salkida

May 1 (UPI) — U.S. First Lady Melania Trump was instrumental in securing the return of at least 26 Ukrainian children abducted by Russia over the past several months, Ukraine‘s top human rights official said.

Speaking at a Bring Kids Back event in Kyiv on Thursday, Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukraine Parliament’s Human Rights Commissioner, said Trump had become an important ally in negotiating with Moscow to return children to their families from Russia and regions under Russian control.

“She helps us a lot… It is clear that the involvement of the first lady of the United States makes it [negotiating with Russia] easier for me in some sense,” said Lubinets, who added that Moscow “can’t avoid” responding to Ukrainian requests when they were routed via the White House.

He said that his office held weekly discussions with Trump regarding the issue.

According to Ukraine Government data, 20,570 children had been deported or forcibly displaced from Ukraine by Russia, as of May 1, of whom only 2,126 have been returned.

At least two are alleged to have been taken from their homes in Crimea and sent to a North Korean “summer camp” where they underwent indoctrination.

The latest return in which Trump was involved was of seven children on April 2 following on from three other groups of children since she wrote a personal appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin in August personally asking for Ukrainian children deported to Russia to be returned.

The letter was hand-delivered to Putin by U.S. President Donald Trump when the pair met in Alaska for a summit on ending the Ukraine war on Aug. 15.

While Trump’s letter avoids directly accusing Moscow of carrying out deportations, she makes her intent clear, telling Putin he had the power “restore the melodic laughter” of children whose innocence “stands above geography, government, and ideology” with a stroke of his pen “today.”

Following the return of the most recent batch of children, the first lady said she was heartened by the commitment of both sides to the effort.

“Reunifying children with their loved ones in this region of the world remains one of the most important global issues today. I am encouraged that both sides remain committed to ongoing cooperation, raising the safety and well-being of children above this abhorrent war,” she said in a statement.

The initiative has also seen some Russian children displaced by the war return to their families in Russia.

Both Lubinets’ Russian counterpart, children’s commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, and Putin are wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague in connection with illegal transfers of children from Ukraine to Russia.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Lvova-Belova and Putin in March 2023. The warrants were sealed to protect the children affected.

Neither Russia nor the United States is a party to the 1998 Rome Statute that established the court and neither recognizes its jurisdiction.

The United States, along with Britain and other countries, has however, sanctioned Lvova-Belova for her role in removing children from Ukraine and forced adoptions.