Nigeria: 73 students kidnapped by terrorists in yet another attack on school children

Nigerian police said on Wednesday that gunmen kidnapped 73 students in another school attack in northern Nigeria, leading authorities to close all elementary and secondary schools in Zamfara state. According to local resident Yusuf Mohammed, attackers stormed the Government Day Secondary School in the isolated village of Kaya on Wednesday.

The kidnappers then began shooting into the air before abducting the children. The new kidnappings come just days after three other sets of hostages were reportedly freed after substantial ransom payments.

1,000 children have been kidnapped since December

Since December, almost 1,000 children have been kidnapped from schools in northern Nigeria. According to UNICEF, while the majority of the students have eventually been released, several were killed while in captivity, and about 200 remained captives before Wednesday's attack. Officials from the government haven't said whether they had anything to do with the hostage releases reported on Friday, but it appears that parents from at least one of the schools paid a large ransom.

Many parents in Niger state sold most of their belongings in order to raise finances totalling more than 30 million naira (about $72,900). A teacher from one of Nigeria's schools mentioned that the Salihu Tanko Islamiya School had sold a plot of land where they had planned an expansion project.

It's still unclear whether the kidnappers of the three different hostage groups last week were linked or if the simultaneous releases were just a coincidence. The events took place in different states and drew students of various ages. This year's rash of kidnappings has been blamed on criminals operating out of isolated, forested parts of northern Nigeria, according to the authorities.

The majority of the shooters are reported to be young Fulani males who used to work as cattle herders before turning to the lucrative crime of kidnapping children for ransom.

Some worry that Gunmen are linked to Islamic militants

Some worry that the gunmen in the northwest are linked to Islamic militants who have long operated in the northeast. They attracted international criticism in 2014 when they abducted 276 schoolgirls in Chibok. More than a hundred of those girls have gone missing and two have just been found, both of whom had children with the militants they were forced to marry.

(Inputs from AP News)

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