PARENTS FEAR WORST AFTER 100 GIRLS TAKEN

DAPCHI, NIGERIA The sound of gunfire rang out as residents gathered for evening prayers. Soon the armed fighters showed up in their trucks and made their target clear: Where was the girls’ school, they asked.

“I heard them shouting: ‘Show us where the school is! Show us where the girls’ school is!”’ Usman Katarko, a farmer, told The Associated Press. “When they eventually found the school, they abducted more than 90 girls. Most of them are our friends’ and brothers’ daughters.”

Now parents say 101 schoolgirls are missing after the Boko Haram assault Monday, presenting the government with its most wrenching challenge since the Chibok mass abduction of 276 schoolgirls in 2014 that shocked the world.

“This is a national disaster,” President Muhammadu Buhari said Friday evening on Twitter.

While some of the Dapchi girls may still be in hiding, hope is fading with each day they do not return.

On Thursday, parents sobbed after Yobe state governor Ibrahim Gaidam urged them to “intensify prayers” as security operatives continued searching the bush for survivors.