UN condemns attack, abduction of Katsina students, calls for their immediate release

The United Nations (UN) has condemned the attack on a Government Science Secondary School, Kankara in Katsina State and called for the immediate release of the students.

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made the call in a statement issued by the Organisation’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, on Monday in New York.

“The secretary-general strongly condemns the Dec. 11 attack on a secondary school in Katsina State, Nigeria and the reported abduction of hundreds of boys by suspected armed bandits.

“He calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the abducted children and for their safe return to their families.

“The secretary-general reiterates that attacks on schools and other educational facilities constitute a grave violation of human rights,” the statement read.

He said security agencies should ensure the abductors of the schoolboys were apprehended and meant to answer for their crime.

Similarly, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Marie-Pierre Poirier, had also in a separate statement called for the urgent release of the boys.

“UNICEF condemns in the strongest possible terms this brutal attack and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all children and their return to their families,” the statement read in part.

Gunmen suspected to be bandits attacked the school on Friday, December 11 and kidnapped the schoolboys.

While the state government claimed over 300 boys were kidnapped, the Nigerian government said ‘only’ about 10 students were kinapped.

READ ALSO: Katsina student who escaped from bandits says 520 were kidnapped

However, one of the boys who was kidnapped but escaped, Osama Aminu Maale,18, told news men on Sunday that 520 boys were abducted by the bandits.

“There were a total of 520 of us that were taken by the gunmen from the school. After they took us away, we stopped inside the bus where they made the older students take a headcount. We counted 520,” he said.

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