Anxious Nigerian parents
demanded answers on Thursday about the fate of
their daughters after the military claimed that 121
schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram Islamic
extremists were now free.
Defence spokesman Chris Olukolade had initially
said that 129 girls were abducted by gunmen in the
Chibok area of the northeastern Borno state late
Monday.
The mass kidnap — which has sparked global
outrage — came just hours after the deadliest
attack ever in the capital Abuja, where a bomb blast
also blamed on Boko Haram killed at least 75
people.
Olukolade said that all but eight of the girls were
safe, citing information provided by the school’s
principal, but families contested the claim.
The defence spokesman’s claim has been widely
disputed, including by parents who voiced anger at
the allegedly false information.
“For the military (which) is supposed to find and
rescue our children to be spreading such lies shows
that they have no intention of rescuing our girls,”
said Lawan Zanna, a Chibok resident whose
daughter was among those taken.
“It is the highest form of insult,” he added. “They
said our girls have been freed… Bring them to us
because they are yet to be reunited with us.”
Boko Haram has repeatedly attacked schools and
universities during an extremist uprising that has
killed thousands since 2009.
- Hope shattered -
The group’s name loosely translates as “Western
education is forbidden.”
Students have been massacred in their dormitories
and bombs set off at university campuses, but the
mass abduction specifically targeting girls is
unprecedented.
Borno’s governor Kashim Shettima said Wednesday
that only 14 of the girls had escaped their captors
and offered a reward to anyone with information
that led to the return of the others.
After the military claimed that most had been freed,
a senior security source who asked that his name
be withheld told AFP that more than 100 remained in
captivity.
Parents in Chibok swarmed the home of the area’s
tribal chief on Wednesday, demanding clarification
after the military claim, residents said.
“The feeling that the military was in pursuit of the
kidnappers kept hope alive among parents,” said
one resident, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The dubious report that most of the children were
now safe “has shattered that hope”, he said.
- President calls emergency talks -
Gunmen stormed Chibok late Monday and torched
several buildings before opening fire on security
forces guarding the Government Girls Secondary
School.
They killed two guards, then forced their way inside,
herding the girls on to trucks before driving away.
Three of the girls who escaped said they were
taken to the Sambisa Forest part of Borno, an area
where Boko Haram is known to have well-fortified
camps.
The school attack and Monday’s bombing at a
packed bus station on the outskirts of Abuja have
underscored the serious threat the Islamists pose
to Africa’s most populous country and top economy.
President Goodluck Jonathan has summoned his
security chiefs for a meeting on Thursday to review
the unrest.
In a rare move, he also invited all of Nigeria’s 36
state governments to join a second security
meeting later in the day.
Jonathan, who is grappling with an unprecedented
crisis in his own party, has faced mounting
criticism over his failure to contain the Boko Haram
threat.
The insurgency has cost more than 1,500 lives
already this year, the deadliest stretch in Boko
Haram’s five-year uprising, which the group says is
aimed at creating a strict Islamic state in Nigeria’s
mainly Muslim north.
Boko Haram’s latest school attack sparked outrage
and condemnation from Britain, the United States
and UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
Borno’s governor Shettima, visibly shaken, voiced
particular outrage at the violence targeting teenage
girls.
“In Islam, women and children are spared during
war,” Shettima said
Kidnapped Nigeria girls taken to Islamist stronghold
The schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram were
taken to a stronghold of the Islamist group, parents
said on Wednesday, as the military confirmed that
129 students had been abducted.
Defence spokesman Chris Olukolade, who had
earlier given the figure of those kidnapped in
northeastern Borno state late Monday, later said all
but eight had been released, but that was disputed
by sources in the region and could not be
independently confirmed.
“The principal of the school confirmed that only
eight of the girls are still missing,” he said in a
statement.
He separately told AFP that most of the students
escaped immediately after they were taken by the
Islamists, a claim that was not consistent with
multiple witness and official accounts.
A senior security source in the region told AFP late
Wednesday that more than 100 girls remained in
captivity.
Borno’s Governor Kashim Shettima had earlier told
journalists that only 14 of the hostages had escaped
so far and offered 50 million naira ($300,000,
215,000 euros) to anyone with information that
leads to the others being rescued.
The mass abduction in the Chibok area of Borno
state came just hours after a bomb ripped through a
packed bus station on the outskirts of Abuja, killing
75 people, the deadliest attack ever in the capital.
The bombing was also blamed on Boko Haram, a
group whose five-year extremist uprising has
shaken Africa’s most populous country and top
economy.
The state governor voiced outrage at Boko Haram,
a group which says it wants to create a strict
Islamic state in northern Nigeria.
“In Islam, women and children are spared during
war,” Shettima said.
Three of the girls who escaped and returned to
Borno’s Chibok area briefed locals about the attack,
said Lawal Zanna, whose daughter was among
those abducted.
“The girls told us they were taken to the Konduga
district part of Sambisa forest by their captors,” said
Zanna, referring to an area where Boko Haram is
known to have well-fortified camps.
The girls said they ran after getting permission from
the gunmen to use the bathroom and were helped
back to Chibok by nomadic herdsmen from the
Fulani ethnic group.
“My daughter is not among the three lucky girls but
their escape and the news on the whereabouts of
the other girls has given me more hope,” Zanna told
AFP.
President Goodluck Jonathan has summoned his
top security chiefs to a meeting on Thursday to
discuss “the security situation in the country” in the
wake of the Abuja bombing and the kidnapping, his
office said.
- Attack condemned -
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on
Wednesday condemned the abduction, calling the
targeting of schools and school children “a grave
violation of international humanitarian law”.
“Schools are, and must remain, safe places where
children can learn and grow in peace,” he said.
The gunmen stormed the Government Girls
Secondary School after sundown, torching several
buildings before opening fire on security forces
guarding the school.
Boko Haram, whose name means “Western
education is forbidden”, has repeatedly attacked
schools and universities in an insurgency that has
killed thousands of people since 2009.
Intensifying violence in the group’s northeastern
base has forced school closures across the region,
including at Chibok, but the girls were reportedly
told to return this week to write end-of-term
exams.
Witnesses said the gunmen killed a police officer
and soldier in the shootout and ultimately forced
their way into the school.
They then forced the girls outside and loaded them
onto trucks and drove off into the bush of the
remote region.
- World’s ‘worst terrorists’ -
Jonathan and the military have sought to portray
Boko Haram as rapidly losing strength thanks to a
massive offensive in the northeast launched last
May.
But a major bombing just a few kilometres from the
seat of government in Abuja and another attack
targeting defenceless students has underscored the
serious threat the Islamists continue to pose.
Jonathan has faced mounting criticism over his
failure to stem the violence, as he seeks to portray
Nigeria as a country on the rise.
Information Minister Labaran Maku characterised
Boko Haram’s uprising as uniquely gruesome.
“Kidnapping young children is exactly what makes
this group of terrorists in Nigeria among the worst
in the world,” Maku told journalists in Abuja.
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