Twenty-four schoolgirls released after northwestern Nigeria kidnapping | News

Following the release of the schoolgirls held in Kebbi State, President Tinubu urged intensified efforts to rescue other captives.

Twenty-four girls who were abducted from a government boarding school in north-western Nigeria last week have been released, the president announced.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday welcomed the girls’ release and called on security forces to step up efforts to free others still held hostage.

Tinubu said, “I am relieved that all 24 girls have been located. We must now take immediate action in sensitive areas to prevent further incidents of kidnapping. My government will provide all support necessary to achieve this.”

The girls were captured on November 17 when armed men attacked their school in Kebbi state shortly after military troops left the compound.

Mass kidnappings for ransom have become common in northern Nigeria, where armed gangs target schools and rural communities and often overwhelm local security forces.

In a separate incident on Tuesday, gunmen captured 10 women and children from a village in Nigeria’s western Kwara state.

State Police Commissioner Ojo Adekimi said the attackers, a group of “herdsmen”, had opened “sporadic fire” during a Monday night raid on Isapa village, which neighbors another village where 35 people were abducted just a week earlier.

‘I want my baby back’

In the largest mass kidnapping in recent memory, attackers attacked a Catholic school in north-central Niger state on Friday and kidnapped more than 300 students and staff. Fifty students escaped over the weekend.

Parents of the abducted children said they are desperate for their release.

“My son is a little boy. He doesn’t even know how to talk,” Michael Ibrahim told AFP news agency. He said, his four-year-old son is suffering from asthma.

“We don’t know what condition the boy is in,” Ibrahim said. He told that his wife became so ill due to the kidnapping that she had to be taken to the hospital.

Some of the abducted children are of nursery-school age.

Another father, Sunday Isaiku, told AFP, “I want my child back. I want my child back. If I had the power to bring my child back, I would do it.”

Four days after the St. Mary’s children were taken, no group has claimed abduction or contacted the school for ransom.