Christian Foundation Appeals for Safety Measures in Nigeria Schools as Abductions Resurge

The abduction of women and children in Borno State, which according to AP, is blamed “on Islamic extremist rebels who launched an insurgency in Borno in 2009 seeking to establish their radical interpretation of Islamic law in the region” involved “people who were out searching for firewood ... displaced by violence in northeastern Nigeria”.

“The victims of the latest attack had left several displacement camps in Borno state’s Gamboru Ngala council area when they were ambushed near the border with Chad and taken hostage,” AP says in its March 7 report, adding, “The incident occurred several days ago but details are only emerging now because of limited access to information in the area.”

Following the March 7 mass kidnapping, reportedly “one of the largest school kidnappings in the decade since the kidnapping of schoolgirls in Borno state’s Chibok village in 2014 stunned the world”, CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas has said he finds it “deeply disturbing” that the Nigerian government has chosen to remain silent as children are “treated as commodities” in the country’s insecurity.

In a March 8 report, Mervyn says he finds it inconceivable that many schools in Nigeria are located in open fields with very little security, putting the lives of learners at risk.

“We are alarmed by the scale of the latest abductions in Kaduna State. It is deeply disturbing that, once again, children simply seeking an education are being treated as commodities to be seized en masse and bartered,” he says. 

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The CSW Founder President adds, “We are particularly concerned by reports indicating the school is unfenced and located in an open field, rendering it particularly vulnerable to such attacks.”

“We therefore appeal to the Nigerian authorities to fully implement the Safe Schools Initiative, extending it beyond the northeast to vulnerable communities throughout the country,” he says in the March 8 report.

The March 7 kidnapping in Kaduna is said to have happened as classes were about to commence. While 187 of the abductees are secondary school students, 125 are in primary school. According to CSW, 25 other primary school students, who were seized managed to escape their captors.

Authorities in Nigeria are reportedly combing areas neighbouring the school, to rescue the abducted children.

The recent mass kidnappings in northern and central Nigeria evoke memories of April 2014, when Boko Haram militants seized 270 schoolgirls from their dormitory in Chibok Town. Of these,  217 are said to have been Christians belonging to the Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, Church of the Brethren in Nigeria). 

In the March 8 CSW report, Mervyn laments that for over a decade terrorist groups, including a militia comprising assailants primarily of Fulani ethnicity, have been able to conduct violent attacks and abductions for ransom across Nigeria on an almost daily basis while eliciting a wholly inadequate response from the authorities. 

“We therefore urge the current federal administration to become far more proactive in addressing Nigeria’s critical security situation by sufficiently resourcing and mandating the armed forces to tackle every insurgency, to liberate all who remain in terrorist captivity, and most crucially, to ensure protection for schools and vulnerable communities,” the CSW Founder President says.

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.