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College students have been nearly to settle into their courses after singing Nigeria’s nationwide anthem when the gunshots rang out. Then chaos erupted.
It was round 8:00 am on Thursday when dozens of gunmen wearing navy uniforms rode on motorbikes into the college grounds in Kuriga, a quiet agrarian village 100km outdoors the northwestern Nigerian metropolis of Kaduna.
Extra gunmen arrived from the rear on foot, blocking all exits as pictures have been fired into the air.
By the point the early morning assault was over, greater than 280 schoolchildren had been rounded up and kidnapped by the armed group within the newest mass abduction in Nigeria’s northwest.
It was one of many largest current mass kidnappings by gunmen recognized domestically as bandits in Nigeria the place prison gangs goal faculties, faculties and highways as they hunt for giant teams of victims to make ransom calls for.
Nigeria’s safety forces on Sunday have been nonetheless looking for Kuriga faculty victims in forests that unfold throughout Kaduna and different states.
In Kaduna, Kuriga’s unfenced faculty, with its dilapidated 5 blocks, housed main and secondary faculty sections. Safety was primary as in lots of such rural faculties.
“We initially thought they have been troopers and commenced hailing them and shouting ‘Could God be with you’,” stated Maryam Usman, an 11-year previous pupil who escaped.
Then bandits started capturing within the air as they attacked the college the place 1,000 schoolchildren the place about to start out courses. Kids and lecturers scattered to flee.
Some, together with Usman, hid in close by properties, however the attackers pursued them and dragged them out, hitting them with whips.
“One of many males held on to my hijab (veil) and began dragging me on the bottom whereas I attempted to withstand,” Usman advised AFP, sobbing outdoors her home.
“I managed to take away my hijab and ran off. That was how I escaped.”
Mustapha Abubakar had simply taken his seat within the class when he stated he noticed a convoy of just about 20 bikes with males in navy uniforms coming into the college.
Abubakar, an 18-year previous secondary faculty scholar, was among the many a whole bunch seized by the attackers and herded into the forest as they have been overwhelmed with horsewhips. However he managed to flee.
“We trekked for hours within the scorching warmth till we have been all exhausted,” Abubakar advised AFP whereas sheltering below a tree alongside the lone highway that runs via the village.
The abductors separated ladies from boys, Abubakar stated.
“There have been extra ladies than boys.”
On three events, a navy fighter jet flew over however their captors advised them to put on the bottom and ordered them to take off their white faculty shirts to cover them higher from the air.
He managed to flee by diving into dense vegetation and walked for hours earlier than arriving at a village near Kuriga the place he slept the night time earlier than reaching dwelling the subsequent morning.
“I nonetheless have hallucinations within the night time,” he stated. “I preserve listening to sounds of bikes outdoors my home as if they’re coming to take me.”
‘Nothing I may do’
Jibril Ahmad, a 20-year previous farmer who was standing outdoors near the college when the gunmen arrived, gave an analogous account.
“I noticed them using into the college, firing gunshots within the air and gathering confused youngsters and beating them with whips,” Ahmad stated as he seemed over the abandoned faculty premises.
Ahmad, a member of the village’s neighborhood safety drive, stated he bumped into home for his looking gun to have interaction the attackers together with different vigilantes.
“One among us was shot within the head and killed whereas one other was injured within the leg throughout the combat,” he stated.
As the abductors have been snatching up the scholars, mother and father watched helplessly, with moms wailing and pleading with the attackers to spare their youngsters, residents stated.
“We watched whereas they have been taking our youngsters away, we couldn’t do something,” stated Amina Abdullahi, whose two youngsters have been among the many kidnapped.
“We don’t know what our youngsters are going via.”
For 76-year previous Abdullahi Musa, the college’s safety guard, it was a double nightmare. He was kidnapped whereas engaged on his farm outdoors the village days earlier and was solely launched by his captors two days earlier than the mass abduction.
He was within the faculty when the bandits stormed the constructing.
“We have been helpless as they herded the kids out of the college into the bush like shepherds with their livestock,” Musa stated.
Sani Hassan, a trainer within the secondary faculty part, was having his breakfast simply outdoors when somebody raised an alarm.
Hassan stated he rushed in the direction of the college via an alleyway however stopped simply metres away as kidnappers led away their victims, together with one among his colleagues.
“There was nothing I may do. I simply stood in a trance-like state and watched in horror,” he stated. “It was surreal.”
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