Nigerian families await news of abducted girls
JANGEBE, NIGERIA—Families in Nigeria waited anxiously for news of their abducted daughters after more than 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped by gunmen from a government school in the country’s north last week, the latest in a series of mass school kidnappings in the West African nation.
Worried parents on Sunday gathered at the school, guarded by police. Aliyu Ladan Jangebe said his five daughters aged between 12 and 16 were at the school when the kidnappers stormed in. Four were taken away, but one escaped by hiding in a bathroom with three other girls, he said.
“We are not in (a) good mood because when you have five children and you are able to secure (just) one. We only thank God ... But we are not happy,” said Jangebe.
“We cannot imagine their situation,” he said of his missing daughters. Residents of a nearby village said the kidnappers had herded the girls through the town like animals, he said.
One resident said the gunmen also attacked a nearby military camp and checkpoint, preventing soldiers from responding to the mass abduction.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said the government’s priority is to get all the hostages returned safe and unharmed. Police and the military have begun joint operations to rescue the girls, a police spokesperson said.
Pope Francis decried the kidnapping and prayed for the girls’ quick release, during his public address in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday.
Last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the abductions and called for the girls’ “immediate and unconditional release” and safe return to their families. He called attacks on schools a grave violation of human rights and the rights of children, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
The most notorious kidnapping was in April 2014, when 276 girls were abducted by the jihadist rebels of Boko Haram from the secondary school in Chibok in Borno state. More than 100 of those girls are still missing.