Nigeria: Freed Schoolboys Arrive In Katsina Week After Abduction

More than 300 school boys kidnapped last week in an attack on their school in northwest Nigeria have arrived in the capital of Katsina state amid celebrations of their release. Television pictures on Friday showed the boys, many of them wearing light green uniforms and also clutching blankets, arriving on buses, looking weary but otherwise well. The boys were abducted last Friday

after gunmen raided the all boys Government Science Secondary School in the Katsina’s Kankara village and also marched nearly 350 of them into the nearby Rugu forest. The Boko Haram armed group have claimed the responsibility for the abduction. None of the boys spoke as they walked from the bus in single file flanked by soldiers, into a government building. The boys walked

barefoot, some of them limping with blisters on their feet. You can see they are virtually exhausted and also traumatised following the events of the past seven days, he said. You can see fear, confusion, trauma, he added shortly after the boys walked past him at the scene of their arrival. It was not clear if all of the boys had been recovered in the rescue operation, but Katsina

state’s Governor Mr Aminu Bello Masari told Idris on Thursday that all 344 boys had been released.The boys were moved to a camp where they will undergo medical tests and evaluation before a likely meeting with the President Muhammadu Buhari, according to Idris. Meanwhile a group of the boys’ parents waited to be reunited with them in another part of town. I couldn’t believe what I heard until neighbours came to inform

me that it’s true, Hafsat Funtua the mother of 16 year old Hamza Naziru said earlier in a phone interview. She said the moment she heard the news, she ran out of her house with joy not knowing where to go even before returning home to pray. Another parent, Husseini Ahmed whose 14 year old Mohammed Husseini was also among those abducted expressed happiness and relief that he would soon be reunited with his son. We are happy and anxiously expecting their return, he said.

Details kept closed

The kidnapping had gripped Nigeria and raised growing concerns and anger about insecurity and violence in the country’s north. In an audio recording released on Tuesday, a man identifying himself as the leader of the Boko Haram claimed the group was responsible for the abduction. On Thursday, dozens of protesters marched through the streets of Katsina as #BringBackOurBoys

trended on the Nigerian social media. The hashtag harkened back to a campaign launched to bring home more than 200 girls abducted by Boko Haram in 2014 in the northeastern town of Chibok. The details of how the boys were released are still unknown. Idris said the government officials are refusing to say anything about it. They are insisting that no exchange of prisoners

was done in exchange for the children but a lot of the people doubt that, he said. Criminal gangs operating in northwest Nigeria have killed more than 1,100 people in the first half of 2020 alone according to rights group Amnesty International. In the northeast, Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State in West Africa Province ISWAP, have waged a 10 year rebellion estimated to have displaced about two million people and killed more than 30,000.