Nigeria Nearly : 500 Children Kidnapped

The security situation in Northern Western Nigeria is worrisome. On Saturday March 9, 2024, armed men broke into a boarding school and seized 15 children aged 7 to 8, as they slept, police told The Associated Press. The incident came 48 hours after nearly 300 students were taken hostage in the conflict-hit region. School abductions are common in Nigeria’s northern region, especially since the 2014 kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by Islamic extremists in Borno state’s Chibok village shocked the world. Armed gangs have since targeted schools for kidnap ransoms, resulting in at least 1,400 abducted since then. The gunmen in the latest attack invaded the Gidan Bakuso village of the Gada council area in Sokoto state at about 1 a.m. local time, police said. They headed to the Islamic school where they seized the children from their hostel before security forces could arrive, Sokoto police spokesman Ahmad Rufa’i told the AP.
Saturday's attack was the third mass kidnapping in northern Nigeria since late last week, when more than 200 people, mostly women and children, were abducted by suspected extremists in Borno state. On Thursday, 287 students were also taken hostage from a government primary and secondary school in Kuriga-Kaduna state. The attacks highlight once again a security crisis that has plagued Africa's most populous country. Kidnappings for ransoms have become lucrative across Nigeria's northern region, where dozens of armed gangs operate. 
Since the attack, no group has claimed responsibility for any of the abductions. While Islamic extremists who are ...