Gunmen kidnap hundreds of Nigerian students

Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Friday promised that “justice will be decisively administered” in response to reports of gunmen kidnapping more than 200 students from a school in Kaduna state. He also referenced another abduction of more than 200 internally displaced people in Borno state to the northeast. The United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Nigeria, Mohamed Malick Fall, on Wednesday said a paramilitary group had abducted the Borno state victims a week before. Some of the people had since been released, he said.

Are abductions unusual in Nigeria? The U.S. State Department said in a 2023 report that the Nigerian government didn’t “fully meet minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking” but was making “significant efforts” to do so. The report noted that internally displaced persons and children are common trafficking victims for paramilitary groups. The State Department noted in another human rights report for 2022 that northern Nigeria—where the Borno and Kaduna states roughly are located—is familiar territory for the Muslim militant group Boko Haram.

Dig deeper: Read Onize Ohikere’s report in World Tour about African leaders confronting security issues and political instability.