[ad_1]
He escaped. But an unknown variety of college students from the Government Science Secondary School Kankara, together with Abdul-Bashir’s cousin and buddy, stay missing after gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles attacked the school on Friday.
“They commanded the crowd like a herdsman herd the sheep,” Abdul-Bashir advised CNN on Saturday. He mentioned the gunmen had been asking college students for cash, ransacking their lockers and taking a few of their belongings. “They shot the policeman guarding our school. I saw them driving many students. There could (be) as much as 200 students, but I am not sure,” he mentioned.
Local police advised CNN numerous attackers driving motorbikes ambushed the boys’ secondary school in a doable kidnapping-for-ransom try. Katsina police spokesperson Isa Gambo mentioned in a press release that reinforcements arriving to the scene “forced the hoodlums to retreat back into the forest.”
Speaking to CNN on Saturday, Gambo mentioned 200 college students had been safely returned to the school by Saturday morning, however pressured it was “too early” to know “how many students are missing or if some of them were kidnapped.” The state’s instructional commissioner Lawal Badmasi mentioned a number of the college students had been nonetheless believed to be with the abductors.
It is unclear how many individuals had been on the school on the time of the attack, as some may need gone residence after exams, the authorities mentioned. The military was visiting the properties of scholars’ households to seek out out who continues to be missing or might have been kidnapped, Kastina’s Director General on Media Abdu Labaran advised CNN.
Badmasi mentioned 436 college students had been accounted for. He mentioned related authorities secondary faculties in the state usually have about 700 college students. However, chatting with CNN, two college students from the school estimated that greater than 1,200 attend the school, taking into the account the absence of the scholars from the school’s most senior class, who’ve left after ending their ultimate yr exams.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the “bandits’ attack” and ordered the military and police to pursue the attackers and “ensure that no students are harmed or go missing,” Buhari’s assistant Garba Shehu advised CNN on Saturday.
According to a report despatched to the President by native Governor Aminu Bello Masari and the military, the army exchanged hearth with the gunmen in an ongoing operation at their enclave at Zango/Paula forest in Kankara on Saturday. At that point, there have been no reviews of pupil casualties, based on the report.
“The police, Nigerian Army, and Nigerian Air Force are working closely with the school authorities to ascertain the actual number of the missing and/or kidnapped students while search parties are assiduously working with a view to find and/or rescue the missing students,” Gambo mentioned in the assertion. He added that further safety had been offered to the school.
Musa Adamu, a senior secondary pupil on the school, mentioned he and plenty of of his roommates jumped out of the home windows once they heard the gunshots on Friday. “We headed to the fence and climbed on it and jumped down,” the 18-year-old advised CNN. “The gun shots sound got louder, we ran in different directions … into the forest. Most of us had no shoes on, and we kept running until we got tired and the sound of the gunshots fainted.”
Adamu mentioned he spent the evening in the forest with about 20 different college students. It wasn’t till the following morning once they realized they’d injured their legs and toes through the escape. They walked again into the city, assembly different college students hiding in the forest on the best way. “When we got to school, we saw soldiers, and they asked us to come in and write our names, after a while they told us to go pack our things and go home,” he mentioned.
Nigerian authorities mentioned the motive for the attack is unclear, however added the realm has seen kidnappings for ransom assaults in the previous.
Abdul-Bashir mentioned he believed the attackers had been Fulanis, members of the historically nomadic herder ethnicity. CNN was unable to independently confirm that declare.
There have been quite a few violent clashes between the Fulanis and Christian farmers in the north-western Nigeria, based on the International Crisis Group. The group mentioned the violence has killed greater than 8,000 individuals since 2011, and compelled over 200,000 to flee their properties.
[ad_2]
Source hyperlink