In north-western Nigeria, gunmen have abducted 73 students in a new school attack on Wednesday. The police have stated that just days after three other groups of hostages were freed due to a large ransom being made reportedly.
The Government Day Secondary School located in the remote village of Kaya was descended upon by attackers. A rescue operation was ongoing to free the students, said the Zamfara state police spokesman Mohammed Shehu.
Since December 2020 , more than 1,000 students have been kidnapped from their schools in northern Nigeria. Large ransom payments from parents have been demanded from the gunmen and although some students have been released , some have died or have been killed in captivity by the gunmen.
The head teacher at one of the schools in Niger state told The Associated Press that many parents had to sell most of what they owned in order raise funds.
The 90 pupils that were freed were the youngest hostages ever taken from a school in Nigeria, as young as 4 years old were taken by gunmen into remote forests and held hostage for three months.
Nigeria’s abductions rate has sky rocketed and has forced some state governments to temporarily close down some schools due to the fact that they need to find adequate security to protect the children.
