On Friday, gunmen abducted 317 schoolgirls from a northern Nigeria boarding school.
According to the New York Post, it’s the latest in a series of mass kidnappings of students in the West African nation.
Police and military are working to recover the girls taken from the Girls Science Secondary School in Jangebe town, Mohammed Shehu, police spokesman in Zamfara state, stated.
Nasiru Abdullahi is the father of two girls taken, aged 10 and 13.
“It is disappointing that even though the military have a strong presence near the school they were unable to protect the girls,” he told the Associated Press. “At this stage, we are only hoping on divine intervention.”
Resident Musa Mustapha said the group also attacked a nearby military camp and checkpoint to prevent the soldiers from interfering with their attack. The gunmen stayed at the school for several hours, and it’s not immediately clear if there were any casualties.
There are several large groups of armed men–known as bandits–who operate in Zamfara state. They are known to kidnap victims for money and for the release of their members from jail.
“We are angered and saddened by yet another brutal attack on schoolchildren in Nigeria,” said Peter Hawkins, UNICEF Representative in the country. “This is a gross violation of children’s rights and a horrific experience for children to go through.” He called for their immediate release of the girls.
Nigeria has had several similar attacks and kidnappings over the years, including the mass abduction in April 2014 by jihadist group Boko Haram in which 276 girls were taken from the secondary school in Chibok in Borno state. More than a hundred of those girls are still missing, the outlet reports.
It hasn’t been two weeks since gunmen abducted a group of 42 people, which included 27 students from the Government Science College Kagara in Niger State. The victims have yet to return.
Anietie Ewang, a Nigerian researcher at Human Rights Watch, referred to the recent abductions in a tweet, saying, “Strong action is required from the authorities to turn the tide & keep schools safe.”
In a statement, Amnesty International called the abduction an “appalling attack” and warned that “the girls abducted are in serious risk of being harmed.”
Teachers are forced to flee to other states for protection, and many children have had to leave behind their education as a result of the frequent violent attacks in their communities, Amnesty said.
