Nigerian schoolboys - The African Mirror

Dec

2020

‘You will die in the forest’ – Nigerian schoolboys describe kidnap ordeal

SEUN SANNI and ISMAIL ABBA ANNAS Shuaibu says he awoke to the sound of gunshots fired by men who burst into his boarding school in northwest Nigeria in a nighttime raid. He and hundreds of other boys were rounded up and forcibly marched out of the school and into a nearby forest. After several hours trekking through woodland, the gunmen ordered them to stop walking and warned them not to try to flee, Shuaibu said. "They said even if you tried to escape, or we allowed you to run, you will go nowhere. Rather, you will die in the forest,"…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Chaos and jubilation as freed Nigerian schoolboys reunite with family

NEWS

AFOLABI SOTUNDE PARENTS sobbed, mobbed their children in hugs and even kissed the ground in gratitude as they reunited with scores of schoolboys who had been kidnapped a week earlier in northwest Nigeria. Hundreds of adults jostled to find their offspring among the 344 dusty and dazed looking children who had arrived by bus in Katsina state on Friday morning. Those who succeeded cheered and grabbed their children, but scores more were still waiting by early evening. "I feel like God has granted me paradise because I am so happy," said an ebullient Hamza Kankara after she found her son,…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Freed Nigerian schoolboys return home, tell of beatings and hunger

NEWS

AFOLABI SOTUNDE SCORES of schoolboys who were rescued from kidnappers in northwest Nigeria have arrived back home, many of them barefoot and wrapped in blankets after their week-long ordeal. The boys, dressed in dusty clothes, looked dazed and weary but otherwise well as they got off buses in the city of Katsina. Within hours - before many had met their waiting parents - they were whisked to a reception with President Muhammadu Buhari, who had come under mounting pressure to free them and deal with insecurity in the north. One boy, who did not give his name, said the captors…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

More than 340 kidnapped Nigerian schoolboys freed – state governor

NEWS

LIBBY GEORGE and ALEXIS AKWAGYRIRAM MORE than 300 schoolboys who had been kidnapped in northern Nigeria were handed over to government security agents yesterday, the governor of Katsina state said. Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State. Picture: Esther Addy/Flickr Governor Aminu Bello Masari said in a televised interview with state channel NTA that a total of 344 boys held in a forest in neighbouring Zamfara state had been freed. "We have recovered most of the boys. It's not all of them," he said. The boys, whose abduction was claimed by Islamist militant group Boko Haram in an unverified audio…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Families of kidnapped Nigerian boys fear time running out

NEWS

AFOLABI SOTUNDE FAMILIES of more than 300 kidnapped Nigerian schoolboys worried they may be radicalised or held for years as security forces combed a vast forest on Wednesday for armed captors possibly from the jihadist Boko Haram movement. According to an unverified audio clip, the group - whose name means "Western education is forbidden" - was responsible for last week's raid on an all-boys school in the town of Kankara in northwestern Katsina state. Parents fear time may be running out: Boko Haram has a history of turning captives into jihadist fighters. "They will radicalise our children if the government…