REVIEW…. WAR ON NIGERIAN SCHOOLS: Timeline of kidnappings, attacks. When will it end?

The news of the release of the 344 students of the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Kankara Local Government Area of Katsina State is no doubt cheering news to the nation.

The news was broken by the The Special Adviser to the Katsina State Governor on Security, Ibrahim Kastina, on Thursday night.

According to him, the schoolboys were freed at Tsafe, also known as Chafe, a local government area in Zamfara State.

Ripples Nigeria had earlier reported Governor Aminu Bello Masari as saying that the abducted students had been located in a forest in Zamfara State and that negotiations were on with their abductors.

Though the governor had given the number of students who were missing from the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara as 333, one of the students, who managed to escape put the number at 540. However, reports say 344 students were released on Thursday night.

The abduction of the school boys from Kankara is however not the first mass abduction of students the nation has witnessed as recent history has a plethora of such. Abduction of students, especially in secondary schools seem to have become a potent tool in the hands of Boko Haram insurgents and bandits operating in the North-East and the North-West geopolitical zones of the country.

2013 Damaturu School attack

In June 2013, the Boko Haram sect invaded Government Secondary School, Damaturu, the Yobe State capital and killed eight students and one teacher at a time the students were taking dinner.

2013 Mamudo, Yobe State School Massacre

On the 6th of July, 2013, Boko Haran insurgents stormed a boarding school in Mamudo, Yobe state and carried out what may as well be the most callous massacre of their over 10-year old campaign of terror.

On that faithful morning, about 42 students and teachers were killed in a school housing about 1200 students.

Reports had it that the insurgents gathered the victims in a central location and then began shooting and throwing explosives. They were said to have also brought fuel to set the school on fire

2013 Yobe College of Agriculture attack

On the 29th of September, 2013, Yobe State and indeed the Nigerian nation was thrown into deep mourning as about 50 students of the Yobe State College of Agriculture, Gujba, were killed in their sleep by the Boko Haram insurgents.

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According to the Provost of the college, Molima Idi Mato, the 50 students were killed in the assault that began at about 1am.

He had said then: “They attacked our students while they were sleeping, they opened fire on them.”

2014 Chibok Girls abduction

The nation woke to the devastating news of the abduction of 276 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State on April 14, 2014.

The abduction was carried out by the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents who invaded the school and took away the girls, an action that sparked global outrage.

Reports had it that the girls were forced from their dormitories into trucks and driven into the bush.

Though about fifty-seven of the girls were able to escape, the now almost mystical leader of the Boko Haram insurgents, Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility in a video released on May 5, 2014, vowing to sell the girls as slave brides.

The abduction of the girls gave birth to a popular off and online movement, #BringBackOurGirls, that continued to trend on Twitter for a long time.

Moves to secure the release of the school girls continued for over two years before the Nigerian government announced the release of 21 of them in October 2016, following talks between the government and Boko Haram, brokered by Switzerland and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Reports at that time said four jihadist prisoners were freed as part of the deal. This was before the army found two other girls in November 2016 and January 2017.

However, in May 2017 another set of 82 girls were released in exchange for five Boko Haram commanders as part of the same talks.

It is however not clear if all the girls captured from Chibok have regained freedom.

2018 Dapchi Girls abduction

Emboldened, apparently by the success of its Chibok operation, the Boko Haram insurgents struck again in Dapchi, when it attacked Government Girls’ Science and Technical College (GGSTC), abducting 110 girls in the process on February 19, 2018.

Dapchi is located in Bulabulin, Yunusari Local Government area of Yobe State.

The abduction of the students, coming barely four years after the Chibok incident, led to another uproar, but unlike the previous years, those of Chibok stayed in captivity, 104 of the girls regained freedom on the 21st of March, 2018.

Reports had it that five of the girls died while in captivity while one other, Leah Sharibu remained in captivity till date on account of her refusal to denounce her Christian faith and convert to Islam as instructed by her captors.

2020 Kankara abduction

The events of 11th December, 2020 in Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, in Kankara Local Government Area of Katsina State, more than anything exposed the precarious security situation in Nigeria.

On that faithful day, and from official report, more than 300 students of the school were marched into captivity by gunmen suspected to be bandits.

Katsina State, just like a few others in the North-West geopolitical zone of the country, has been the hotbed of bandits’s criminal activities.

The armed bandits have been credited with massive kidnappings, killings and destruction of property, with security agencies seemingly unable to get a hold on them and arrest their murderous activities. Even as the 344 Kankara students regain their freedom and are reunited with their families, many Nigerians wonder if this will be the end on assault on schools, or how long before news of another such murderous attack comes to life again.

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