Nigerian security forces free 344 boys kidnapped by gunmen

KATSINA • Security forces have rescued nearly 350 schoolboys who had been kidnapped in north-western Nigeria and taken into a vast forest, the governor of Katsina state said, with some returning home yesterday, bringing relief to many families.

It was not immediately clear whether all the missing boys had been recovered in Thursday's rescue.

"I think we have recovered most of the boys," Governor Aminu Bello Masari said in a televised interview with state channel NTA.

Yesterday, dozens of the rescued schoolboys arrived back home, many of them barefoot and clutching blankets.

Television pictures showed the boys, dressed in dusty clothes and light green uniforms and looking weary but otherwise well, getting off buses in the city of Katsina and walking to a government building.

One of them, with flecks of dried mud on his face, told Channels TV the captors had fed them bread and cassava.

"It was cold," he told the reporter. Asked how he had felt when the bus arrived in Katsina, he said "I was really happy", and broke into a smile.

On Friday night last week, gunmen raided the Government Science Secondary School in Katsina on motorbikes and marched the boys into Rugu forest, in the biggest such incident in the lawless region in recent years.

Mr Masari said a total of 344 boys held in the forest had been freed in neighbouring Zamfara state. He did not say how many had been missing or how they were freed.

Mr Masari said security forces had cordoned off the area where the boys were being held and were given instructions not to shoot.

"We thank God that they took our advice and not a single shot was fired," he said.

The abduction gripped a country already incensed by widespread insecurity and evoked memories of Islamist militant group Boko Haram's 2014 kidnapping of more than 270 schoolgirls in the northeastern town of Chibok. Six years on, only about half of the girls have been found or freed. Others were married off to fighters, while some are assumed to be dead.

Hours before the rescue of the boys was announced, a video started circulating online purportedly showing Boko Haram militants with some of the boys. Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of the footage or who released it.

President Muhammadu Buhari welcomed the students' release and asked for patience while his administration dealt with security issues. "We have a lot of work to do," he said in a statement, but added: "We will deal with all that."

The abduction was awkward for Mr Buhari, who comes from Katsina and who has repeatedly said that Boko Haram has been "technically defeated".

Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the kidnapping in an unverified audio recording.

The video, which featured Boko Haram's emblem, showed a group of boys pleading: "Help us, help us." The father of one of the missing boys, who gave only his first name Umar, said his son, Shamsu Ibrahim, was one of the boys who was heard speaking in the video.

Boko Haram has a history of turning captives into Islamist fighters. If its claims are true, its involvement in north-western Nigeria marks a geographical expansion in its activities. But it could have purchased the boys from local criminal gangs with which it has been building ties.

In the north-east, Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province, have waged a decade-long insurgency estimated to have displaced about two million people and killed more than 30,000 others.

They want to create states based on their extreme interpretation of Islamic syariah law.

Mr Buhari, a former military ruler, was elected in 2015 in large part due to his pledge to crush the insurgency. Under his predecessor, Mr Goodluck Jonathan, Boko Haram grew in strength and controlled territory around the size of Belgium.

REUTERS