By Theodore Shoebat
Gunmen in Nigeria kidnapped over a hundred children to get ransom money, as we read in the Wall Street Journal:
Gunmen have kidnapped more than 100 girls from a boarding school in northwest Nigeria, a government official said Friday, the latest in a rising tide of high school abductions across Africa’s most populous nation, where kidnapping for ransom has become a lucrative industry.Armed militants broke into the Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe in Zamfara state at around 1 a.m. Friday and packed schoolgirls onto vehicles or walked them toward the nearby Rugu forest, which spreads over three states and hundreds of miles. By morning, community leaders were still working to tally the number of people missing.
Local news reports quoted officials saying more than 300 had been seized, but a Zamfara government official said the number wasn’t yet clear.
“More than 100 students have been taken but we are yet to verify the exact number,” said one local official.
…
Dozens of schoolboys and staff are still missing after being kidnapped from another school, the Kagara Government Science College in Niger state on Feb. 17. Government officials have said they are negotiating with the kidnappers to bring the victims home.…
“Kidnapping for ransom is now the most thriving industry in Nigeria,” said Bulama Bukarti, a terrorism analyst and columnist with the Daily Trust, northern Nigeria’s most popular newspaper.
Nigerian officials are split between those who favor dialogue with the criminal groups seizing the schoolchildren and those who favor a zero tolerance approach.
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