In Nigeria, fifteen hostages, including twelve students, managed to escape their captors weeks after being abducted along with more than 130 children and teachers from their school in the center of the country, their head teacher told AFP on Tuesday.
Kidnapped in mass by armed men on May 30 in the private Muslim school of Salihu Tanko, Niger, several students were able to escape the hands of their kidnapper. “I can confirm that 15 hostages escaped (…) they left the house where they were being held because the guards forgot to lock the door,” said Abubakar Alhassan, the school’s head teacher. Among the survivors, there are three teachers and twelve students, including a seven-year-old girl, he said.
According to the same source, the hostages marched through the night from the remote village of neighboring Zamfara state, where they were being held, to Birnin Gwari district in neighboring Kaduna state. These fifteen survivors had been separated by the kidnappers from the rest of the hostages, who are still being held. During their captivity, “the hostages were beaten and insulted,” said Abubakar Alhassan, who adds that they have since been reunited with their families.
On Monday, Niger State Governor Sani Bello met with the parents of the abducted students, promising them that the authorities would rescue them. This attack is one of the latest in a series of kidnappings of schoolchildren and students in recent months in central and northwestern Nigeria, where for a decade armed gangs have terrorized populations, looting villages. , stealing cattle and carrying out mass kidnappings for ransom.
