Witnesses report 2nd mass-abduction of children in Nigeria in less than a week

Johannesburg — Greater than 100 college students have been kidnapped from their elementary faculty in northern Nigeria early Thursday morning by unknown assailants on bikes, witnesses informed native media retailers and CBS Information’ accomplice community BBC News. One pupil was mentioned to have been shot within the chaos on the faculty within the city of Kugira, in Kaduna state, and brought to a hospital.

BBC quoted witnesses as saying the kids have been between the ages of 8 and 15, and that one trainer was taken together with them.

The kidnapping comes simply days after another mass-kidnapping in Nigeria’s tumultuous north, which reportedly noticed scores of youngsters, principally women, seized by militants in Borno state, additional to the east.

A Kaduna state official confirmed {that a} mass-kidnapping had taken place in Kugira to a BBC reporter in Nigeria, with out offering additional particulars.

The younger girls and women seized by gunmen in Borno had been out gathering firewood on Friday, exterior a camp for internally displaced folks.

Till final week, there had been a big drop within the variety of kidnappings by legal teams, generally generally known as bandits, in Nigeria. The Nigerian authorities had issued no touch upon both of the assaults by late Thursday afternoon.

Witnesses informed native information retailers that greater than 100 younger girl and a number of other boys have been seized on Friday taken from close to the Babban Sansani IDP. Studies mentioned a big group of individuals gathering wooden have been surrounded by the fighters, who let aged folks go earlier than heading into the bush.

The Nigerian Day by day Belief newspaper, quoting a supply from contained in the Babba Sansani camp, mentioned the fighters have been from the Islamic militant group Boko Haram, and “three of the ladies who escaped and returned to Ngala mentioned the boys [insurgents] took them” near a village throughout Nigeria’s northeast border in neighboring Chad.

The United Nation’s Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs informed the French information company AFP that an estimated 200 folks have been taken in that raid, and that head counts have been being executed on the camp to give you a extra actual quantity.

There have been conflicting stories from witnesses about whether or not the attackers in Borno state have been from Boko Haram or the ISIS affiliate within the area, known as the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

Each teams are energetic within the area.

Borno State Police mentioned the assault befell Friday afternoon, however the power couldn’t verify the numbers kidnapped or lacking.

The abductions come after Borno officers mentioned late final 12 months that the majority of Boko Haram’s fighters within the state have been both lifeless or had been apprehended.

If the preliminary counts show correct, Friday’s assault could be the most important mass-kidnapping in Nigeria for the reason that April 14, 2014 assault on the Authorities Ladies Secondary Faculty in Chibok, which noticed 276 girls taken from their dormitory by Boko Haram militants.