Haidar Umar/AFP/Getty Images
Kuririga school photographed on March 8, 2024. More than 250 students were kidnapped by armed groups.
abuja, nigeria
CNN
—
Gunmen who kidnapped at least 287 schoolchildren in Nigeria last Thursday demanded a ransom of 1 billion naira ($621,848) and threatened to kill all the students if their demands were not met, local community members said. told CNN on Wednesday.
“Yesterday (Tuesday) at approximately 12:16 p.m., they called me from a hidden number and demanded 1 billion naira ($621,848) as ransom for the students. They said [the ultimatum] “The concentration camp lasts only three weeks or 20 days from the day the children were kidnapped, and if the government does nothing they will kill all the children,” said Aminu Jibril, a resident of Kuriga village in Kaduna state, where the school is located. said. It is located.
The children were abducted on March 7th.
Jibril also told CNN that the kidnappings were “a means of revenge against the government and security agencies for killing gang members.”
Members of the Kuliga community said they believed the kidnappers received their phone number from the head of the secondary school of the school where the students were abducted.
More than 300 people were killed by armed robbers on motorcycles who attacked a LEA primary and secondary school in Kuriga village, Chikun district, Kaduna state early Thursday morning, police spokesperson Mansoor Hassan told CNN on Friday. The student was taken away.
Some of the students were rescued, but 287 of them remain in the hands of their kidnappers. About 100 of them are elementary school students and the rest are middle school students.
Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani said in a statement Thursday that the government is “taking all measures to ensure the safe return of children and students.”
Sani also said that a community member who confronted the kidnappers during the attack was killed.
Nigeria's capital Abuja and neighboring Kaduna state to the southwest have grappled with repeated kidnappings for ransom by bandits, with several mass kidnappings witnessed in recent years, including in areas where LEA primary and secondary schools are located. .
In 2021, at least 140 students at a private secondary school were kidnapped by armed groups.
The incident occurred just a few months after about 20 students of a private university in Chikun's Kasarami village were abducted by armed groups.
Five of the students were killed because the ransom deadline was not met, family members told CNN at the time.
