More than 80 children are missing after a spate of militant attacks on schools in Nigeria over the past week, a toll that officials and rights advocates say is the latest in a long pattern of school abductions that has come to define the country’s security crisis.
In the northeastern state of Borno, on the edge of the Sambisa Forest — a stronghold of Boko Haram and its Islamic State‑affiliated splinter, the Islamic State West Africa Province — militants raided a primary school in the village of Mussa sometime between Wednesday and Thursday. Amnesty International said the attackers abducted 42 children there, in the Askira Uba and Chibok areas.
Across the country, two secondary schools in the southwestern state of Oyo were hit hours apart on Friday. At least 40 children were taken from the Oriire area, about 220 kilometers (135 miles) from the commercial capital, Lagos, according to Amnesty’s Nigeria branch. Such abductions are rare in this part of the country, making the coordinated strikes particularly alarming.
Government official Peter Wabba, from Mussa, told The Associated Press that the “exact number” of children abducted in Oyo was 48. “The government is assuring us that they are doing their possible best to see that these children are rescued but up till now, we are still waiting,” he said Sunday.
Police spokesperson Ayanlade Olayinka said Saturday that three gunmen had been detained in connection with the Oyo attack after residents identified them. Olayinka did not indicate whether authorities were searching for additional suspects.
Amnesty International warned that the ever-present danger of abduction is driving children out of classrooms entirely, while families, desperate to shield their daughters, are forcing underage girls into marriage. “Victims and their families continue to be denied access to justice,” the group said, adding that Nigerian authorities “never fulfill promises to investigate the incidents and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Mass school kidnappings have become a hallmark of insecurity in Africa’s most populous nation. Last year more than 300 children were taken in two separate abductions in the northern region. Analysts say armed gangs increasingly view schools as strategic targets, betting that the outrage generated by attacks on children will draw more attention — and, often, ransom payments.