Nigeria probes into Boko Haram school kidnapping

Chibok girls angry, upset at latest Boko Haram abduction

KANO — Boko Haram’s latest abduction of schoolgirls in northeast Nigeria has evoked painful memories for Yagana Yamane and Saraya Amos — and for good reason.

In 2014, the pair were among 276 girls kidnapped from their boarding school in Chibok, in an attack that brought world attention to the insurgency in Africa’s most populous nation.

They and 55 of their classmates managed to escape in the immediate aftermath, jumping from trucks and fleeing into the bush as the human cargo was taken away into the night.

The trauma of events that evening nearly four years ago has now come flooding back, with sadness for the plight of 112 of their fellow pupils who are still being held.

“I shivered when I heard that some girls had gone missing after Boko Haram attacked their school in Dapchi (in Yobe state),” Yagana (18) said.

“I immediately knew Boko Haram took them... The news evoked frightening memories of what I went through when Boko Haram came to our school and took us away.

“I cried because it reminded me of my friends who are still in the hands of Boko Haram. I felt anguish and pity for the Dapchi girls because I can imagine what they are going through now.”

Saraya said she felt ill when she heard the news on the radio and began to pray: “Oh Lord! Help these girls escape as you helped us escape.” ABUJA — Nigeria’s government on Tuesday said it had set up a committee to establish how Boko Haram jihadists managed to kidnap 110 girls from their school in the country’s remote northeast.

Members of the militant Islamist group stormed the Government Girls Science and Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe state, last Monday, nearly four years after a similar mass abduction in Chibok, Borno state.

Thousands of women and young girls have been kidnapped since the conflict began in 2009. Men and young boys of fighting age have also been forcibly conscripted.

The 12-member committee will be chaired by a major-general and include senior figures from the armed forces, police, intelligence agencies and the state government.

Information minister Lai Mohammed said it would

The teenager said her “heart beats faster” every time she hears about the latest abduction of 110 girls, making it harder to recover from her own experience.

“Images from what we went through when Boko Haram took us come back, which prolongs the agony I have been trying to forget,” she said.

“It’s like thrusting a knife into a wound that’s beginning to heal.”

Boko Haram targeted the Government Girls look into the “presence, composition, scale and disposition of security” in Dapchi in the run-up to the attack.

Local people have said they were vulnerable to attack as the military withdrew last month, leaving security to ordinary police, who allegedly fled when the jihadists arrived.

Police and the military have since argued publicly about security responsibilities in the town.

“The panel, which is expected to submit its report by March 15, 2018, is also saddled with recommending measures to prevent future occurrence,” Mohammed added in a statement.

As of 18:00 on Monday, the Nigerian Air Force had flown a total of 200 hours as part of the search operation for the girls, who are aged 11-19, the government said. — AFP

Secondary School in Chibok on April 14, 2014 because of its opposition to so-called western education and a secular curriculum.

It was not the first attack on schools in the remote region.

According to Unicef, nearly 1 400 schools have been destroyed and more than 2 295 teachers have been killed since the start of the insurgency in 2009.

In the same period, at least 20 000 people have lost their lives.

Yagana and Saraya were forced to finish their schooling elsewhere in Nigeria, supported by a meagre state government grant.

Yagana and 12 other Muslim students from Chibok were sent to the northern city of Katsina; Saraya and 40 other Christian pupils attended a school in the central city of Jos. Not all of them finished their final exams. The teenagers are now back in Chibok, waiting to start the next phase in their life. Yagana wants to be a doctor. Saraya has plans to be a lawyer.

The government in Abuja and the military in the northeast have repeatedly claimed Boko Haram is no longer the force it was in 2014 when its fighters stormed Chibok.

Both teenagers are angry the group retains the capacity to conduct a kidnapping on such a large scale.

“I was enraged and I’m still bitter that Boko Haram can still walk into a school and abduct girls like chickens,” said Yagana.

“I thought with the Chibok experience Boko Haram would never have another chance to do what they did in Chibok.”

Security needs to be improved at schools to prevent further damage in an impoverished region where girls already suffered from a lack of education.

“The government should please do everything to free these girls along with the remaining girls from Chibok. These people are killing our future,” said Yagana. — AP