More than 300 children abducted by Boko Haram terrorist group released and handed over to Nigerian government

The Katsina state government in northern Nigeria has reported this Hundreds of students at Kankara High School, who had been abducted by the Boko Haram terrorist group, were released on Thursday night. Secretary of State, Alhaji Mustapha Inuwa, confirmed the information to the BBC network and indicated that the children were being transported to Katsina in Tsafe, the neighboring town of Zamfara state.

The young people will be received in Katsina tonight and there they will meet with the president on Friday. Muhammadu Buhari. Abdul Labaran, media adviser to Governor Katsina, said the children were in good condition

A few hours before release, Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram has released a video in which dozens of teenagers can be seen, whom it identifies as students abducted in the north of the country last Friday.

With his face covered in dust and scratches, a young man explains that he was one of the students abducted by the “Shekau gang”, the name of the historical leader of Boko Haram.

The students were abducted on Friday night by armed men operating on behalf of the jihadist group, whose area of ​​influence is hundreds of kilometers to the east.

Their exact number remains uncertain because authorities had initially announced 333 missing students and on Thursday spoke of 400.

In the video, a A 14-year-old teenager says 520 have been abducted and some have died. The images show children, mostly very young, grouped together in a forest, in poor sanitary conditions.

A man who introduces himself Abubakar Shekau, emits a voice message stating: “These are my husbands and these are your children.”

According to the information provided by the agency AFP, this massive kidnapping was coordinated by the gang leader Awwalun Daudawa in collaboration with two other famous bandits, Idi Minoriti and Dankarami, leaders of armed groups terrorizing the people of northern Nigeria and committing kidnappings, extortion and animal theft.

According to several testimonies of the young people who managed to escape, the hostages were divided into several groups on the same night of the abduction.

This attack, which revives the ghost of the abduction of more than 200 girls in Chibok in 2014, it is a blow to President Buhari, originally from the state of Katsina where he turns 78 on Thursday. This weekend, his spokesman said the head of state was heading to his farm in Daura, not far from Kankara, for a week of personal rest.

The presidency issued a statement on Saturday condemning the attack on “innocent children” and promised to strengthen security in schools, closed in several northern states due to growing insecurity.

A civil society group, the Coalition of Northern Groups, had announced a demonstration in Daura, but security services prevented it.

Dozens of protesters, among them the abducted relatives went to Katsina, the state capital, and gathered in front of the governor’s house with the motto #BringBackOurBoys (Bring the children back).

Muhammadu Buhari, a former general elected in 2015 and then in 2019, did fight against Boko Haram their priority.

Boko Haram and the West African Islamic State (Iswap) terrorist group, active in northeastern Nigeria, have claimed more than 36,000 lives in ten years of conflict and two million people are unable to return to their homes. houses of growing jihadist threat in the area.

With information from AFP