A view of a classroom at Government Science High School in Kankara District, after it was attacked.
Kankara:
The parents gathered at a secondary school in Nigeria’s northwestern Katsina state on Sunday, pleading with authorities to save hundreds of children abducted by gunmen.
The military had exchanged gunfire with a gang that took students from the government’s all-boys science school in Kankara, a spokesman for the president said Saturday night, but parents said Sunday they had heard little else about it. fate of their children.
Abubakar Lawal came from Zaria, a city 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Kanara, after learning that two of his three children at school were among the missing.
“Since yesterday I have been here, praying that the Almighty Allah would rescue our people,” he said outside the dusty school grounds.
One of her missing sons, Buhari, 17, was named after President Muhammadu Buhari, a native of Katsina state. Anas, 16, was also missing. Lawal said the school principal turned to the parents and told them to pray.
Murja Mohammed, whose son was kidnapped, asked the authorities for help.
“If it is not the government that will help us, we have no power to rescue our children,” he told Reuters.
The president’s office declined to comment and referred inquiries to the police. The military and police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Some children seen by Reuters said they had escaped from the forest where the gunmen took them, but it was not immediately clear how many remained in captivity or what the group wanted.
Attacks by armed gangs, commonly known as bandits, are common throughout northwestern Nigeria. The groups often attack civilians, robbing them or kidnapping them for ransom. Islamist militants, attacking civilian and security targets, are more common in the northeastern part of the country.
There is growing outrage over the precarious security situation in Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa. At the end of last month, Islamist militants killed dozens of farmers in the northeastern state of Borno and beheaded some of them.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)