ABUJA, Nigeria – A few days earlier, gunmen stormed a high school in Zamfara state in northwestern Nigeria and abducted hundreds of schoolchildren, school officials and local security agencies were warned that there was danger in the city, especially in the area where the school is located, according to the locals.
On Friday, heavily armed militants confiscated at least 315 girls who were at the government girls’ high school in Jangebe. Militants arrived on motorcycles at about 1:30 a.m. local time and marched the abducted girls into the nearby forest, leaving family members of the victims discouraged and anxious. Residents said “strange men” were patrolling the school area and intimidating members of the local community in the vicinity of the school a few days before the abductions.
“Suddenly I saw strange people on the street [leading to the Government Girls’ Secondary School] at night, acting like vigilantes, “Danlami Umar, who lives near the school, told The Daily Beast.” They stopped passers-by and asked them where they were going. “
The men had occupied the neighborhood around the school for two days before the incident, harassing pedestrians and prompting residents to alert police about their activities.
“As soon as I reported them, they disappeared from the area,” Umar said. “I then told police officers to strengthen security in the school area, but this was not done.”
But those living near the school were not the only ones to express concern about the security situation in the area. Some members of the family, after learning of The Daily Beast, asked the school authorities to close the boarding house and allow the girls to attend classes as day students, due to the growing reports of criminal activity in nearby areas. Their prayers fell on deaf ears.
“People complained that their homes were attacked at night by gunmen and that their children were constantly harassed by these haloes, so some parents demanded that the school close the boarding house only if these criminals decided to visit one day. Jibril Abubakar, whose niece attends school but is not missing, told The Daily Beast.
“Unfortunately, someone from the school said that the authorities cannot close the dormitories alone, claiming that they must obtain approval from the state education ministry before doing so,” Abubakar added.
Concerns about the safety of their children have forced some parents to prevent their children from returning to their homes, instead of making them go to school as day students, according to Abubakar. The move could have saved several girls from being abducted on Friday.
“Some parents saw this coming and did what was right to keep their daughters away from the boarding house,” Abubakar said. “If not, we would have lost more than 500 girls from school today.”
No group has yet claimed responsibility for Friday’s abductions, which took place more than a week after 42 people, including 27 schoolchildren, were abducted in a similar attack on a Nigerian government school. from north-central Nigeria. The boys have not yet been recovered.
Almost 24 hours after the Jangebe students were confiscated, a joint operation involving the police and the army has so far failed to identify their location. “There is information that they have been moved to a neighboring forest and we are following and exercising caution,” Abutu Yaro, Zamfara state police commissioner, told a news conference late Friday.
Rising insecurity in parts of northwestern and north-central Nigeria, especially after hundreds of schoolchildren were abducted in Katsina state in December last year, has forced state governments in two regions to close boarding schools in vulnerable areas. The Zamfara government waited until Friday’s abductions before taking similar action. But for many in the troubled city of Jangebe, the move came too late.
“If they had acted in time, the girls would have been with their families and no one would have begged the army to find their daughters,” Abubakar said. “This nonchalant attitude of the government must stop.”