Nigeria’s kidnapping crisis: ‘Too scared to speak’

Many of the parents whose children were kidnapped from a boarding school in Nigeria 10 days ago are scared – they do not want to talk to the authorities or journalists in case the kidnappers retaliate.

One of them told the BBC, “If they hear you saying anything about them, they will come to you before you know it. They will come to your house and take you into the jungle.” For his safety, the BBC is not identifying him and is calling him Aliyu.

His young son was one of more than 300 students who were abducted by armed men on the grounds of St Mary’s Catholic School in the village of Papiri in the central state of Niger on the morning of November 21.

Some of the children caught are up to five years old. About 250 are reportedly still missing, although state officials have said this number is exaggerated.

The incident is part of a recent wave of mass kidnappings in north and central Nigeria – some of which have been blamed on criminal gangs, known locally as “bandits”, who find kidnapping for ransom a quick and easy way to make money.

“Our village is remote, we are close to the bandits,” said Aliyu, whose son is still among the missing.

“It’s a three-hour drive to where they hide. We know where they are, but we can’t go there ourselves, it’s too dangerous.”

He is frustrated with worry – especially when vulnerable captives held in jungle bases during previous kidnappings have died, whether from disease or non-payment of ransom.

“I feel very bitter and my wife has not eaten for days… We are not happy at all. We need someone’s help to take action.”

Two days after the Papiri kidnapping, 12 teenage girls were abducted from the Musa district of north-eastern Borno state, a sign of a long-running jihadist insurgency in the region.

The Nigerian military says the girls were captured by the Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP) group while harvesting crops on their family’s farm, and were later rescued following an “intelligence-led” operation.

And days before the Papiri kidnapping, 25 girls were taken from their school in Maga, 200 km (125 miles) north in Kebbi state.

One of the students fled what authorities described as a “farm settlement” before the rest were rescued by security forces last week.

The bandits live in cattle camps deep in the bush. The gangs are largely made up of ethnic Fulani people, who are traditionally nomadic herders.

No details have been released as to whether a ransom was paid to free the girls from Maga.

Actually, paying ransom is illegal in Nigeria. However, if they are not paid the hostages can be assaulted – and may even be killed.

Relatives resort to crowdfunding or, in the case of mass school kidnappings, authorities are sometimes suspected of negotiating their release.

Neither group has said it was behind these two recent school kidnappings, although the government recently told the BBC that it believed jihadists, not bandits, were responsible. Locals in Kebbi and Niger states may be eager for more information on this.

Yusuf, the legal guardian of some of the Maga girls and whose name has also been changed to protect their identities, believes such kidnappings could not have happened without informants in the community.

He told the BBC, “All these kidnappings are not common in KB. These kidnappings can only happen with the connivance of someone from the community, because no stranger can come to any place and carry out such an incident without the help of the local people.”

“They need the help of someone who knows the area well.”

But there has been a surprising change in attitude in some areas, where villages have been at the mercy of bandits for the past decade and have given up hope of help from security forces.

This has prompted some of these rural communities, who live in close proximity to kidnapping gangs and in the absence of effective policing, to come up with their own solutions.

“In the north-west, communities that have been seriously affected by these mass kidnappings have entered into so-called peace agreements with these bandits in exchange for access to mines,” David Nwaugwe, a security analyst at security risk consultancy firm SBM Intelligence, told the BBC.

Several states in the northwest are rich in untapped mineral deposits – particularly gold, a profitable prospect for bandit gangs.

According to Mr Nwaugwe, these deals have been effective in some areas.

“Over time we have seen the rate of attacks decline somewhat,” he said.

Katsina State in the far north of Nigeria is an example. It has long been synonymous with insecurity – particularly banditry and mass kidnappings. But in the past year, things have begun to change due to several peace agreements between bandit leaders and community leaders.

Sitting on mats under the shade of broad trees, representatives from both sides explain their terms and conditions before finally reaching an agreement.

Bandit leaders have been willing to negotiate, although they have faced criticism for attending peace talks armed with AK47 guns and other weapons.

The region of Jibiya was an early adopter of the peace talks process, which reached an agreement in March this year.

Ibrahim Sabiu, a community leader and lawyer who represented Jibia during peace talks, said that after suffering insecurity for more than 10 years, life had become untenable.

“Our homes and sources of livelihood were destroyed,” he told the BBC in September.

“Schools and hospitals were all closed. Hundreds of people were killed and hundreds more were kidnapped for ransom.”

A main condition of the peace agreement was that schools would reopen. Furthermore, the community asked for guarantees that they would not be attacked and that bandits would not enter the community with guns.

For bandits in Jibiya, they requested access to clean drinking water and safe passage for their cattle as they moved to new pastures.

They also requested that their women be allowed to shop and trade in the local markets.

The release of the abducted people was at the top of the agenda of both sides. The BBC does not know how many people were released in Jibia, but by the end of September – a month after an agreement was reached – 37 villagers in Kurfi, another area of ​​Katsina state, had been released.

“We had to accept the peace proposal because there was no end in sight to the violence,” Mr. Sabiu said.

“This is a crisis that should be handled by the police but security agencies were brought in and yet, they could not end it.”

Audu Abdullahi Ofisa, a bandit leader who took part in the Jibiya talks, supported the move towards peace: “Life is full of ups and downs, we are happy to move to the second phase.”

A return to peace would benefit rural communities, but what is less clear is why bandits have entered peace processes – especially in cases where gold mines were not part of the deals.

Access to ransom money has traditionally made banditry an attractive endeavor, yet in Kurfi, it was the bandit leaders who requested peace talks.

They lead a relatively nomadic life, making access to clean drinking water difficult. This also increases the prices of food items as they are not able to reach the markets.

Life had become expensive and inconvenient.

“We are all tired of the violence,” Nasiru Bosho, one of the bandit leaders taking part in the Kurfi peace talks, told the BBC.

“We were all living together in the same community until the unfortunate violence started. We have agreed to live and let live. There will be no more harassment or kidnapping by any side.”

There is also a view that the blood of such communities has dried up and they can no longer pay the ransom.

While the north has made temporary security gains from peace agreements such as Kurfi and Jibiya, analysts say they have only increased insecurity.

Some gangs may find it more profitable to focus their attention on areas in the far south.

“As you move further south, people are better off economically,” Mr Nwaugwe said.

“The more these gangs move south, the more likely they are to find places where they can attack. Parents in those schools are more able to raise enough money to pay a ransom.

“Entire rural communities across much of the northwest have been evacuated. Anyone who has the means has fled the countryside to major city centres.”

Some have questioned whether the recurrence of attacks over the past few weeks is linked to Donald Trump’s recent threats of military intervention in Nigeria.

The US President criticized the Nigerian government for failing to adequately protect Christians from attacks by Islamic insurgents.

A jihadist insurgency erupted in the country’s north-east in 2009 – and the kidnapping of more than 200 girls by Boko Haram militants from Chibok 11 years earlier was one of the first mass kidnappings.

The government and security analysts are at pains to explain that both Muslims and Christians have been targeted in the mass kidnappings. For example, the BBC was told that the schoolgirls recently kidnapped from Maga were Muslim.

Christian Anne of the Institute for Security Studies told the BBC, “Nigeria’s security situation is now very complex. We don’t know how to draw the line between violent extremist groups or bandits. Because they operate in almost the same area and in an unstable manner.”

He is not convinced that Trump’s comments are causing a resurgence of high-profile mass kidnappings of schoolchildren.

“They may have ideological motives but they are more motivated by profit,” he said.

David Nwaugwe agrees that no causal link can be made between Trump’s comments and the recent increase in attacks.

“Right now, I think they’re just going after easy targets like schools because it’s easier to get money from them. It’s too early to draw other conclusions,” he said.

As far as he is concerned, stopping the violence will require a two-pronged approach – a combination of armed confrontation and negotiations on an amnesty agreement.

He said, “It’s like a stick and carrot approach – show them you can use overwhelming military force against them, then try to convince the rest to surrender.”

“I don’t think purely using military power will work here, you need to complement it with other measures.”

But for Papiri’s parents, the possibility of living in peace with the enemy remains a distant dream as they pray for the safe return of their children.

Additional reporting by BBC correspondent Chris Iwokor in Abuja