A Nigerian all-boys school was invaded late Friday, Dec. 11, 2020, where over 300 boys were kidnapped from the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara. In the village of Kankara, angry, fearful parents are awaiting word on their son’s whereabouts.
Boko Haram Claims Responsibility
Nigeria’s Boko Haram jihadist rebels claimed responsibility for the abduction. They invaded the school and engaged security forces in a gunfight on motorcycles, forcing hundreds of other students to escape the horrendous attack by jumping fences. In contrast, others escaped capture while being herded into a nearby forest.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau stated:
Western education is un-Islamic.
Boko Haram Using Local Gangs
Security and local sources mentioned by AFP news agency stated Boko Haram had recruited three local gangs to carry out the attack. Another source stated that the children were taken across the border to Zamfara and distributed among the gangs for safekeeping. A few of the gangs are in communication with authorities concerning the release of the children.
Nigerian officials are in negotiations with Boko Haram in hopes of freeing the boys. One parent, Marwa Hamza Kankara ravaged by, this said:
There’s no way I can measure my anger now, No woman wants to be outside at this hour but we cannot sleep, we cannot eat, because of our missing children. I am not only crying for my child but I am crying for all the children,
Government’s Lack of Protection
Kankara residents and people all over Nigeria are monitoring the fate of these boys. Angry criticism of the government’s handling of the continued extremist violence in the region has escalated.
Sylvester Anachike, a 58 years old newspaper salesman in, Abuja says:
Nobody is happy about the insecurity in the country. Even kids are afraid of being in present Nigeria because of insecurity, Just imagine, the children been abducted in the president’s state! It is unfair. It’s not good.
Teacher Union Threaten Strike
The safety of children in other schools in that remote area is a concern. Meanwhile, the Nigerian Union of Teachers has threatened a nationwide strike unless the government improves the security situation against Boko Haram.
The union feels that Boko Haram is targeting the students and the teachers. With sadness, they are reminded of a prior attack where girls from Chibok were abducted by Boko Haram six years ago and are still missing.
Earlier Mass Killings
The jihadist group also earlier this month claimed responsibility for a massacre in Borno of 76 farm workers. Four days later, this death squad on motorbikes claimed responsibility for slaughtering more workers in a rice field near Zabarmari.
In early June of this year, Boko Haram killed 81 people in an attack on a village in northern Nigeria. Residents stated that the attackers were in armored tanks with trucks filled with guns. The village head, women, and children were taken in this attack from the Faduma Kolomdi community.
Attackers Posing as Islamic Teachers
It is very worrying.
Saturday, Nigeria’s police and their airforce and army engaged with Boko Haram in a gunfight after they located their hideout in the forest.
Nigerian President Under Fire
These kidnappings draw attention to Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari because of his country’s negligent security. His opposition People’s Democratic Party states that it raises questions of the government’s ability to combat Boko Haram when the home state of the president has a school attacked when Muhammadu was on a visit.
It becomes very difficult to determine who is in the right and who is in the wrong. People often say that a rich man’s terrorist is a poor man’s freedom fighter. Look at the state of unrest in the United States where people are against police brutality and governmental deceptions. Are the people of Boko Haram an advanced version of American civil unrest?
What would people be willing to do to set things, right? What would make people turn on their own people and shoot them down like animals? Could governmental corruption and residential acceptance of that corruption push good men and women over to the dark side? Some would say no. But it has been said that desperate times are a cause for desperate measures. In America, keep your eyes open; only time will tell.
Opinion Written by Omari Jahi
Edited by Cathy Milne-Ware
Sources:
US News: Boko Haram kidnaps 330 boys: ‘No child should have to choose between their education and their life’
Yahoo! News: Nigerian states close schools after students kidnapped in Katsina
Aljazeera: 17 Nigerian students rescued from Boko Haram, two dead: Official
Vanguard: Shekau’s Boko Haram faction claims Borno farm massacre
CNN: 81 killed in bloody Boko Haram attack in Nigerian village; by Bukola Adebayo and Isaac Abrak
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