Joy as abducted boys come home
Nigeria’s freed schoolboys were reunited with their joyful parents Saturday, two days after they were released by gunmen allied with jihadist rebels in the country’s northwest who had abducted them six days earlier.
Relieved parents hugged their sons tightly in Kankara, where more than 340 boys were taken from the Government Science Secondary School on the night of Dec. 11.
Other families met their sons in Ketare, about 15 miles away.
More boys went to their homes further away in Katsina state.
“When I heard our boys were freed, I was full with joy and happiness because I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat,” said Murjanatu Rabiu, a mother of one of them.
“We were crying, not knowing the condition that they were in,” she said.
“When we saw them, we were so happy even though they came back with wounds . . . and very hungry.”
Amid the celebrations, however, many of the schoolboys expressed worry about returning to school, saying their captors threatened them with death if they went back to classes.
Nigeria’s Boko Haram jihadist rebels claimed responsibility for the abductions, saying they attacked the school because they believe Western education is un-Islamic.
Boko Haram is roughly translated as “Western education is forbidden.”
“Fear gripped me when they said if they ever see us in school again, that they will kill us,” said Usman Mohammad Rabiu, 13. “I was seriously afraid.”
He told how the students were forced at gunpoint to trek several miles through the bush, without food or water.
He said his feet had sores from the hike across the tough terrain and was in such pain that he eventually couldn’t walk and had to be helped by an older boy who carried him on his back. He said he does not want to go back to school.
“The reason why I’ll not go back to school is because I am thinking if I go back to school the bandits will kill me and then I’ll not see my parents again,” said Usman.
After being released by their captors, the boys were bused to Katsina, the provincial capital, where they met with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday.
The president appeared to minimize the traumatic abduction, telling the boys they should not be deterred in life by “this little difficulty.”
Another abduction of more than 80 students happened Saturday night in an area nearby, but the pupils were quickly rescued by security forces after a fierce gun battle, police announced Sunday.
That incident took place in Dandume, about 40 miles from Kankara.