Dozens still unaccounted for after school raid in northeast Nigeria
Local officials said gunmen linked to ISWAP attacked a Borno State secondary school during exams, killing at least three people.
By Sofia Marchetti · World Affairs Correspondent
2 min read
More than 30 students are still unaccounted for after armed men attacked a secondary school in northeast Nigeria, local officials told AFP and Reuters. The raid underscores the continuing threat to schools in the country’s conflict-hit north, where armed groups and criminal gangs have used abductions to raise money and exert control.
AFP reported that at least 37 students were missing after the Monday attack in Lassa, a town in Borno State. The news agency said the assailants were from Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP, and struck while students were taking exams.
The Nigerian military said at least three people were killed, including a soldier and a teacher, according to AFP and Reuters. The military had earlier said authorities had rescued 10 students and that only one person was missing, but local officials later gave a higher count of those still held.
Borno State Commissioner for Education Lawan Abba Wakilbe told reporters in Lassa that 25 female students, 11 male students and one staff member remained in captivity, Reuters reported. He also said eight people had been freed, including the school’s vice principal.
AFP reported that a list described as naming students in captivity was shared with journalists by Ijagla Ijabila, a local government councillor in the area. The list included the students’ genders and phone numbers for their parents, and an intelligence source showed AFP the same document, the agency reported.
School abductions continue in the north
Borno State has been a center of Nigeria’s armed conflict for years. Nigeria has fought an insurgency concentrated in the northeast since 2009, and AFP reported that violence has fallen from its peak about a decade ago while analysts have warned of a rise in attacks since last year.
Kidnapping students for ransom has become a recurring tactic among armed groups and non-ideological bandit gangs operating in parts of northern and central Nigeria, according to AFP and Reuters. The 2014 abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls from Chibok by Boko Haram remains the country’s best-known school kidnapping, but attacks on schools have continued.
In May, gunmen seized more than 40 pupils from Mussa village in Borno State, and those children remain in captivity, AFP reported. That month, armed men also took dozens of schoolchildren from three schools in Oyo State, Reuters reported, describing the attack as unusual for southwest Nigeria, which is considered the country’s safest region.
The latest attack in Lassa adds to pressure on Nigerian authorities over the security of schools in areas exposed to armed groups. Officials had not reported the students’ release as of Tuesday, according to AFP and Reuters.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.