Nigerian students - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

More than 100 kidnapped Nigerian students arrive back in Kaduna

WRAPPED in orange headscarves and blue school uniforms, over 100 Nigerian students and staff who were kidnapped this month arrived at the local government building in the country's north, a day after they were freed by the army. "There are 131 students, six others are currently being hospitalized and will be eventually discharged when they get better," said Major General MLD Saraso of the Nigerian army. He said one of the 138 people abducted, a school staff member, had died in captivity. The army announced on Sunday it had rescued 137 hostages - 76 female and 61 male - in…

Apr

2023

By The African Mirror

Nigerian students escape abductors two weeks after kidnapping

NEWS

EIGHT Nigerian secondary school students kidnapped by gunmen in northern Kaduna state two weeks ago escaped from their captors and were found by villagers who alerted security forces, the state's internal security commissioner said. Armed gangs operating mostly in remote parts of northwest Nigeria have carried out violent attacks against villagers, schools and motorists, abducting hundreds for ransom. The female students were seized by an armed gang on their way from school along with an unknown number of others, authorities said on April 4. Samuel Aruwan, Kaduna commissioner for internal security and home affairs, said the students escaped from a forest between…

Dec

2021

By The African Mirror

29 Nigerian students die in boat tragedy

NEWS

A boat carrying Nigerian students capsized in Kano state in northern Nigeria, killing at least 29, local officials told Reuters on Wednesday. The boat on the Watari dam was carrying roughly 40 students from an Islamic school, most of whom were under 18, and capsized around 5:30 local time Tuesday evening, a local government official said. Kano state fire service spokesperson Saminu Yusuf Abdullahi said rescuers had recovered 29 dead bodies. "What we know is that the boat was overloaded," Abdullahi said. Local government official Aminu Bello Gogori said seven students had been rescued and were receiving hospital treatment. Two…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

10 kidnapped Nigerian students released

NEWS

BANDITS have released 10 more students kidnapped two months ago from a Baptist school in northwest Nigeria, the school administrator has told Reuters. The Reverend John Hayab, the administrator of the Bethel Baptist High school, said 21 students from the school remained in captivity. He said an undisclosed ransom was paid to release eight students while another two were set free due to ill health. Last month bandits released 15 students from the school after a group of 28 was set free in July following the release of a first group of 28 two days after the raid. Around 150…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

African students the most mobile in the world

NEWS

SETH ONYANGO, BIRD NEWSROOM AFRICAN students seeking higher education are the most mobile in the world, with over 405, 000 ― 5 per cent of the 8.1 million tertiary students on the continent, studying overseas or elsewhere. According to French Campus, which monitors students’ data movement, the figure is more than double the global average of 2.4 per cent. As of September, last year, France had 29,000 Moroccan students, followed by students from Algeria and Tunisia. In the United Kingdom, there were more than 17, 000 Nigerian students followed by students from Egypt and Kenya. In the United States, there were…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Six Kidnapped Nigerian students freed

NEWS

GARBA MUHAMMAD SIX students and two officials who were kidnapped last month from a school in Nigeria's Kaduna state were released after relatives paid ransom money, a school official and parent have disclosed. Kidnappings by armed men, commonly referred to in Nigeria as "bandits", have become endemic in northern Nigeria, disrupting the education of hundreds of thousands of children. Gunmen attacked the main campus of the Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic in Kaduna on June 10 and took students and staff members, in the process killing one student. The college's spokesman Abdullahi Shehu, said the students and officials were released at an…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

136, not 200 Nigerian students abducted

NEWS

GUNMEN abducted 136 students from an Islamic school in the north-central Nigerian state of Niger on Sunday, a state official said on Wednesday, lower than the estimate of 200 previously offered by the federal government. An armed gang on motorcycles attacked the town of Tegina in the state on Sunday. State government officials in the following days said they were contacting parents to ascertain the exact number of missing children. Nigeria's president, in a statement issued late on Monday, said security agents were searching for around 200 students. Niger state's deputy governor, Ahmed Mohammed Ketso, told reporters the number of…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Tears, singing as abducted Nigerian students return

NEWS

NEARLY two months after their abduction by armed gunmen, more than two dozen students in northwest Nigeria's Kaduna state were reunited with jubilant family members on Friday amid tears and celebratory singing. Thirty-nine students were taken from a forestry college at gunpoint on March 11. Ten were later released, and their parents said this week that two had escaped. The remaining 27 told reporters they were held in a forest, periodically beaten with sticks and guns, and allowed to contact their families only to beg for ransom. Female students said they tore their clothing to use as sanitary pads. "The…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Alcohol use is worryingly high among Nigerian students: here’s who is most at risk

HEALTH

MANY young people drink alcohol – whether it’s out of curiosity, ignorance, peer pressure or other reasons. It’s a major public health concern. SAMSON FEMI AGBEROTIMI, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, North-West University The consequences of drinking can be physical, social and academic. Young people may put themselves at risk of injuries, accidents, health problems, relationship problems and poor school performance. Using alcohol also increases the risk of using other substances and developing related disorders. For young people, it’s linked to mental health disorders in later and old age. In most parts of Nigeria, there’s very little control over the sale and…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Unique Nigerian COVID-19 design

COVID-19

ABRAHAM ACHIRGA NIGERIAN students have built a machine they hope can one day help hospitals remotely treat COVID-19 patients, taking temperatures, transporting medicine and allowing medical workers to communicate with patients with a webcam and screen. The robot is a remote-controlled cabinet on wheels, decked out with a vibrant, floral pattern and dubbed "MAIROBOT". In a demonstration, a school nurse loaded MAIROBOT with medicine and a student, using a controller and goggles to see through a camera, trundled the machine through a corridor and into a mock isolation room to scan a student's forehead for her temperature. "I hope this…