In a men's school in Katsina state

600 students kidnapped in Nigeria

photo_camera AFP/KOLA SULAIMON - The rebels of the extremist group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the abduction of hundreds of children from a school in the northern state of Katsina, Nigeria

Some 600 students were abducted last Friday from a boys' school in Katsina state in the northwest of the country. While some have been released or have fled, the number of students remaining in detention is not known. After counting those who managed to escape and the testimony of some of the students residing at the school, Nigerian security forces estimate that 333 students are still being held. The incident took place near midnight on Friday, December 11, when a large group of armed men surrounded the school with their motorbikes, seriously injuring the security guard. Of the school's 800 teenagers, 200 fled immediately on hearing the shots and about 200 others have been found and returned home after spending several nights hiding in the forest surrounding the school. 

All secondary schools in Katsina State, which is where Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari comes from, have been declared closed. The president strongly condemned the attacks which are reminiscent of those in Chibok where 276 girls were abducted by Boko Haram in 2016. Of these 276, the whereabouts of almost 100 are still unknown.  

Militares nigerianos en la Escuela de Ciencias del Gobierno en Kankara, en el estado noroccidental de Katsina, Nigeria, el 13 de diciembre de 2020

During the weekend, several hypotheses have been discussed about which group could be responsible for this attack. On Sunday 13 December the presidential spokesman even stated that "military commanders on the ground have the coordinates of where they believe the bandits are, and whoever they are holding". Until the early hours of December 15 it was considered a hypothesis that this attack had been carried out by bandits whose aim was to demand a ransom for the abducted people or to sell them to human trafficking networks. These theories seemed to be supported by several rumours that the bandits had contacted the authorities to ask for a ransom for the children. This is a common practice in the north-west of the country where armed groups, sometimes Fulani groups linked to inter-community conflicts in the area, assault, rob and carry out express kidnappings terrorising the local population. Amnesty International reports that more than 1,000 people have been killed by these Fulani armed groups.

However, in the early hours of December 15 the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, released a recording confirming the responsibility for this event, stating that "what happened in Katsina was our responsibility" . However, unlike in the case of the girls from Chibok, Boko Haram has not yet shown any evidence that he has the students beyond the recording. The hypothesis that an armed group sold the students or coordinated with Boko Haram's jihadist group is therefore also being considered. One of the reasons for assessing this possibility is the fact that the Fulani armed groups are more active in the northwest than Boko Haram, despite the fact that the latter has a presence along the entire border with Niger. In the next few days, Boko Haram will most probably broadcast a video as proof of the responsibility for these crimes.  

El presidente de Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari

The government's policies have come under attack for their inability to resolve the security crisis triggered by armed groups and bandits, some of them ethnic groups, which, together with the Jihadist threat, have made northern Nigeria one of the most dangerous regions of Africa. Almost 1,700 people have died as a result of the violence in northwest Nigeria during the first eight months of 2020. Boko Haram is one of the major perpetrators of Jihadist violence, but he is not alone. The Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) is Nigeria's other Jihadist terrorist group, with close links to the Daesh faction in the Sahel, the Islamic State of the Great Sahara (ISGS). Daesh arrived in Nigeria in March 2015 when Abubakar Shekau himself swore loyalty to the Islamic State and changed the name of the group to the Islamic State of the West African Province (ISWAP). Daesh accepted ISWAP by promoting a message of support for international fighters to travel to West Africa to fight as soldiers in ISWAP. A year later, Daesh decided to appoint Al-Barnawi as ISWAP's leader, replacing Shekau, who refused this change in the leadership of the terrorist group and divided the group, returning to lead the faction we know today as Boko Haram.  

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