Dozens Of Abducted Students Freed In NW Nigeria After Security Crackdown

Nigerian gunmen have freed dozens of schoolchildren kidnapped this month in northwest Zamfara State, according to the local government, after an army crackdown helped end the one of a series of mass abductions of pupils this year

Kano, Nigeria, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Sep, 2021 ) :Nigerian gunmen have freed dozens of schoolchildren kidnapped this month in northwest Zamfara State, according to the local government, after an army crackdown helped end the one of a series of mass abductions of pupils this year.

Nigerian troops also came under attack in Zamfara at the weekend after an armed group raided a military base there killing 12 security officials, while gunmen stormed a jail in another central state and freed scores of inmates.

Security forces began operations in Zamfara a week ago against heavily armed criminal gangs known as bandits. Local authorities also shut down telecoms completely across the state to disrupt bandit communications.

The largest most recent military operation on criminal gangs came after more than 70 students and some teachers were snatched from the Kaya school in Zamfara on September 1.

The students were freed on Sunday after nearly a fortnight in captivity.

"A total of 75 hostages taken from the Government Junior Secondary School Kaya were released on Sunday evening," the local government source said.

"They looked robust and unharmed." A video released by Zamfara State Governor Bello Matawalle's office showed him greeting busloads of students in the night and asking them if they had been harmed.

A dozen girls in yellow headscarves and robes smiled and laughed from inside one minibus.

According to security sources and the local source, the captors had released them in exchange for safe passage out of the forest as the army had surrounded their camp.

The telecom shutdown had helped troops reach the bandit camp without giving away operations, the local government source said.

"The government already knew where the children were being kept by the bandits and lack of communication between them and their informants gave security personnel the opportunity to reach the area and take the criminals off-guard."Mass kidnappings have become common in parts of Africa's most populous country, where President Muhammadu Buhari is under pressure to improve security as his forces battle jihadists in the northeast and large-scale criminal gangs in other regions.