Their lives are already very difficult, in camps for displaced people, after they fled their homes in northeastern Nigeria. One day recently, they risked going into the countryside to collect firewood – and about 200 of them, some officials said, were kidnapped.
Days later, dozens of children – if not more – were reported to have been abducted on Thursday from a primary school about 500 miles away in central Nigeria.
Who is responsible is not clear, and the security services have no statements. The first incident occurred in a region feared by Boko Haram, the brutal Islamist group with a history of mass abductions. Residents told local media that bandits carried out the second.
But the two have important elements in common: They involve some of the most vulnerable people in society, and show the failure of successive governments and the Nigerian armed forces to bring peace and stability to a fragmented that land.
Parts of Nigeria, the continent’s most populous West African nation, are plagued by crime and violence, and the 15-year-old Boko Haram insurgency in the north continues. Boko Haram’s abduction of 276 students from their dormitory in Chibok town 10 years ago, which sparked international outrage, is still an open wound; 98 of the victims are still missing, according to Amnesty International.
More than 3,600 people were reported kidnapped in Nigeria last year – the highest number in five years, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Projectthough the true number is likely higher because many episodes go unreported.
The details of the two most recent mass abductions remain extremely murky.
The first took place in Borno state, which has been the epicenter of the Boko Haram insurgency. Across the northeast, more than two million people have left their homes and livelihoods to seek refuge in camps in garrison towns, where they struggle to eke out a meager living. The towns are defended by the Nigerian military and surrounded by trenches, beyond which jihadist groups operate.
The people abducted in Borno — many of them women and children — came out of one such town, Ngala, near the border with Cameroon, in search of firewood to sell, according to Mohamed Malick Fall, the humanitarian coordinator. of the United Nations in Nigeria. He said they were captured by members of an armed group, who freed some old women and some children under the age of 10.
“The exact number of people abducted remains unknown but is estimated at over 200 people,” he said in a statement.
The member of the House of Representatives representing Ngala, Zainab Gimba, put the number at 300, according to Nigerian media reports, and she and other lawmakers called on the security services to release the abductees. .
But Babagana Zulum, the governor of Borno State, warned that the numbers could grow, saying that some of the reported abductees may have gone voluntarily, even joining the militants.
“We cannot yet ascertain the correct number of abducted victims,” he said. “Some may have decided to go voluntarily.
The incident was “about recruitment” for militant groups, the governor said. “They’ve lost members and their numbers are depleted, and they’re now looking for new recruits and women.”
The abduction was carried out a week ago, but the news about it did not spread for several days.
“Those who venture beyond the protective trenches surrounding these towns to search or farm do so at great risk,” said Mr. Fall, “with killings, abductions, forced recruitment and sexual and gender-based violence rampant.” He added that authorities need to be made to help the displaced earn a living so that they do not risk their lives to get fuel.
Governor Zulum said last month that the government could do nothing more for displaced communities facing economic hardship, and that the money spent on food and other things for them was already there. “humongous.”
Mr. Zulum chased what analysts call an “aggressive program” of closing camps and relocating displaced people, despite the lack of security in the places to which they will be sent.
Thursday’s kidnapping took place in Kuriga, a small town in Kaduna State. Residents told local news media that the students had just finished their morning assembly when armed men appeared and marched the children through a nearby forest. The school recently moved from the countryside to the town to improve security.
There was no official statement from the authorities on Thursday afternoon, although a senator, Shehu Sani, said that as many as 232 students may have been abducted, adding to a post on X that he was “hopeful that their liberty would be secured.”
Nigeria, a diverse country of more than 200 million people, faces many complex security challenges, including conflict between herdsmen and farmers, separatist movements, piracy, and violence linked to oil theft, as well as jihadist insurgencies including Boko Haram. Kidnapping is a feature of all of them, according to Nigerian analysis firm SBM Intelligenceand the main motivation is ransom payments.
Some of these ransoms are paid in cash. Others are paid in food or medicine. Many of the Chibok girls were released in exchange for ransoms that reportedly ran into the millions of dollars.
Ismail Alfa contributed reporting from Maiduguri, Nigeria.
