Students released by captors, Nigeria says
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — More than 300 schoolboys abducted last week by armed men in northwestern Nigeria have been released, the Katsina state governor said Thursday.
Gov. Aminu Bello Masari made the announcement on NTA state TV.
More than 800 students were at the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara when it was attacked Dec. 11 by armed men. Hundreds escaped and more than 330 were believed to be still captive.
“At the moment, 344 of the students have been released and handed over to the security operatives. I think we can say at least we have recovered most of the boys, if not all of them,” he said.
Arrangements are being made to transport them to Katsina, he said.
“The news reaching about an hour ago indicates that all of them have been recovered and they are on their way from the forest area to Katsina,” Masari said, adding that they would be examined by doctors Friday and then arrangements would be made to reunite them with their families.
The government will be “working with the police and also to engage private security f irms to safeguard schools” to prevent the “ugly experience of the last six days,” he said.
The government had said it was negotiating with the attackers.
News of the release came shortly after a video was released by Boko Haram militants that purportedly showed the abducted boys. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the abduction.
In the more than six- minute video seen by Associated Press journalists, the apparent captors tell one boy to repeat their demands that the government call off its search for them by troops and aircraft.
A voice can be heard telling the boy, who is clearly under duress, what to say from behind the camera. The youth says that they were kidnapped by a gang directed by Boko Haram factional leader Abubakar Shekau and that some of those abducted from the Government Science Secondary School were killed.
The video circulated widely on WhatsApp and first appeared on a Nigerian news site, HumAngle, that often reports on the Islamist extremist group.
Government officials said police, the air force and the army tracked the kidnappers to a hide- out in the Zango- Paula forest. There has been an outcry in the West African nation against the government for not doing enough to stop attacks on schools, as well as villages, in the north.
Experts say the attack was probably carried out by local gangs, which have staged increasingly deadly assaults in northwestern Nigeria this year, and could have been collaborating with Boko Haram.
Parents of the missing students have been gathering daily at the school in Kankara for news of their sons.
The government f irst identified the attackers as bandits, who are known to use child soldiers.
Earlier, Masari said 17 boys have been rescued since the initial abduction.
Usama Aminu, a student who was able to escape his captors, told the AP that he heard gunshots when the attack began.
At f irst he thought the shots came from a nearby town, but he said that when he realized it was a raid on the school by men with AK- 47s, he and others scrambled from their dormitory and scaled a fence in the pandemonium.
Even though the 17- yearold f led, he and the other students still were not safe.
“After we scaled the fence, we were hearing voices that we should come back,” he said.
The boys returned “thinking they were police officers. Unknown to us it was the bandits. They then gathered us at a spot. That was when we realized they were bandits, wearing military uniform,” he said.
“We walked through the night in the bush, and at sunrise they found a place and asked us to sit down,” he added.
During their hike, Usama said they met other boys in their teens carrying guns. He said some were younger than him.