According to the AP news agency, about 1,500 students have been kidnapped in attacks in Nigeria since the jihadist terrorist group Boko Haram attacked a secondary school in Chibok, taking away 276 girls in 2014.
The kidnappings have taken place mainly in Nigeria's troubled north, where violence by Islamist insurgents and terrorist groups has devastated entire communities and killed thousands.
A parent whose child was kidnapped in Nigeria on March 7 is crying out in pain - Photo: AP
While some victims in Chibok are believed to have been forced into marriage with militants, most kidnappings since then have been for ransom. The militants have also attacked communities to force people to work on seized agricultural land and mining sites.
Some raids have targeted universities, such as the 2021 attack on Greenfield University in Kaduna State, which left five students dead after their parents failed to meet ransom demands. But most kidnappings have targeted schools for young children.
Here's a closer look at the kidnapping crisis in Africa's most populous country.
What is happening in northern Nigeria?
Nigeria's poor and undereducated north has been hit hardest by a wave of crime and social unrest.
The government claims to have made progress against the jihadist terrorist group Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) militants, but these groups remain active and have established bases and expanded their territories considerably.
But an even worse and seemingly intractable problem has arisen in northwestern Nigeria, where a large number of armed gangs that tend to operate as bandits and bandits have taken control of territories, attacking schools and communities to carry out mass killings and kidnappings.
They have seized mining areas and farmland and forced farmers to work for them. Nigeria's armed forces, weary of fighting endless internal conflicts for more than 10 years, have done little to stop these gangs and bandits.
These gangs also threaten the country's food security as they control many of Nigeria's major crop-producing regions.
Who are the kidnappers?
No one has claimed responsibility for the March 7 kidnapping, but it occurred in an area where bandits are active and have attacked residents in the past.
The bandits are often from the nomadic Fulani tribe, who originally took up arms against Hausa tribes in Zamfara state to gain access to land and water resources. But they have now evolved into organized armed groups that specialize in kidnapping for ransom, seizing farmland and gold mines.
It is believed that there are hundreds of such gangs in northern Nigeria, each consisting of heavily armed fighters.
Why do kidnappings happen?
Kidnappings are generally for ransom and have become a lucrative business, said Shehu Sani, a former federal lawmaker in Kaduna, where the attack occurred on Thursday (March 7).
A Nigerian security patrol vehicle stands guard at the site of the kidnapping on March 7 - Photo: AP
Mr Sani said in a post on X that students were the prime targets because the robbers “knew that it would arouse public sympathy for the students and pressure would be put on the government to comply with their demands”.
The Nigerian government has not admitted to complying with the kidnappers' demands, but sources close to the negotiations revealed that ransom payments were made by both the family and the state government, MP Sani added.
Ransom payments and other illicit earnings, such as “protection” money from farms and mineral mines, have helped gangs amass a huge arsenal of weapons powerful enough to even shoot down military aircraft.
The willingness of desperate families, communities and even state governments to pay ransoms has “turned mass kidnapping into the most lucrative criminal activity in northwestern Nigeria,” said Nnamdi Obasi, an adviser to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG).
The affected communities are often in remote rural areas where government security presence is limited, leaving them vulnerable to attacks by bandits living in nearby forests.
How did the government react?
While the Nigerian federal government maintains an official stance of responding to kidnappings with an armed response, some state governments such as Zamfara and Katsina have tried softer measures, such as negotiations and amnesty agreements with bandits.
Mr Obasi said the failure of the state and federal governments to apprehend the kidnappers had added to the “climate of impunity” and “only created more heinous atrocities”.
Several gang leaders have been killed over the years, including one recently in Kaduna, but such crackdowns have been largely a one-off affair. Getting to the root of the problem, by persuading or forcing gangs to stop their lucrative kidnapping business, is difficult and largely ineffective.
Quang Anh
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