Nearly 300 primary and secondary school students are missing after a mass school abduction in northern Nigeria. One pupil, Aminu Abdullahi, has described his harrowing escape from the gunmen. 

Kaduna

Nearly 300 primary and secondary school students have been reported missing following a mass abduction at a school in northern Nigeria. This event marks a concerning escalation in the wave of school kidnappings plaguing the region. 

One pupil, Aminu Abdullahi, shared his account of the harrowing experience, detailing his escape from the gunmen involved in the abduction. His testimony sheds light on the terrifying circumstances faced by the students during the attack.



Student details his escape from Nigerian school abductors

Thirteen-year-old Aminu Abdullahi was at school in Nigeria's northern Kaduna state when the gunmen arrived. Authorities and parents say more than 300 children aged between seven and 15 were seized in the attack in Kuruga town. But Abdullahi managed to escape. When I was running, one of the bandits was following me, but I was dodging because he was following me on a bike. I was running around looking for a way to escape and I was able to run across the road and run inside the bush and came back home from there. Some students were later released and a few others escaped. But Solisu Abubakar, a teacher at the local government education authority school, said that still leaves at least 286 children missing. No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings. It is the first mass school abduction in Nigeria since July 2021. Kidnappings at schools in Nigeria were first carried out by jihadist group Boko Haram. It seized more than 200 students from a girls' school in Chibok in Borno state a decade ago. But the tactic has since been adopted by criminal gangs without any ideological affiliation, seeking ransom payments, according to authorities. President Bolotonubu said he had directed security and intelligence agencies to rescue the children and ensure that justice is served against the perpetrators.

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