news
Boko Haram says it abducted Nigeria schoolboys
Nigeria-based Islamist militant group Boko Haram has said it was behind last week s kidnapping of hundreds of schoolboys in the north-western Nigerian state of Katsina.
More than 300 pupils are unaccounted for, but others managed to escape.
The authorities had previously blamed bandits for the attack.
Boko Haram, has been notorious over the last decade for school kidnappings, including in Chibok in 2014, but these have taken place in the north-east.
In an audio message about the abductions, its leader Abubakar Shekau said what happened in Katsina was our responsibility and that his group opposed Western education.
Boys escaped through forest after gunmen abducted their friends at Nigeria school By Ismail Abba and Afolabi Sotunde
Muhammed Abubakar, a 15-year-old boy who escaped from men who kidnapped hundreds of students from his school, looks on in Kankara
KANKARA, Nigeria (Reuters) – Usama Aminu was one of the lucky ones. He managed to escape when gunmen abducted more than 300 pupils from his school in northwestern Nigeria.
“When I decided to run they brought a knife to slaughter me but I ran away quickly,” he said, sitting on a mat and speaking softly as he described how he had been in bed at the all-boys school in Kankara when he heard gunshots on Friday night.
15 Dec 2020 / 01:40 H.
(Corrects spelling of state governor to Masari, not Masri, in paragraph 6)
By Ismail Abba and Afolabi Sotunde
KANKARA, Nigeria, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Usama Aminu was one of the lucky ones. He managed to escape when gunman abducted more than 300 pupils from his school in northwestern Nigeria. When I decided to run they brought a knife to slaughter me but I ran away quickly, he said, sitting on a mat and speaking softly as he described how he had been in bed at the all-boys school in Kankara when he heard gunshots on Friday night.
At first, he said, the boys thought the commotion was from soldiers trying to protect them, but the attackers, armed with AK-47s, were already inside the building, threatening groups who tried to leave their dormitories at the Government Science secondary school in an attack that has outraged Nigerians.
Nigerian authorities fear 400 children kidnapped after school attack in Katsina ANI | Updated: Dec 13, 2020 16:30 IST
Abuja [Nigeria], December 13 (ANI/Sputnik): As many as 400 children could have been kidnapped in the northern Nigerian state of Katsina as their school got attacked by a group of unknown armed men, Nigeria s Vanguard newspaper reported, citing authorities.
The Kankara Government Science Secondary School, an all-boys boarding school, was attacked on Friday. The school s guards were reportedly shot at as intruders stormed the premises. Over 800 children attended the school that day, and it was not immediately clear how many were kidnapped and how many saved themselves by fleeing into bushes.