It was 10.30pm
when sporadic gunshots started ringing out in the sky over the village of Kankara in Katsina, northern Nigeria.
Farmer Garba Abubakar was with his wife and six of his 15 children, who were still awake when the shooting started.
By morning, Mr Abubaker, and scores of parents like him, were beside themselves with grief: his son Jafar, 14, who was staying at the nearby boarding school, had been kidnapped, almost certainly by Boko Haram, one of the most violent ISIS-linked groups in the world.
Three hundred and thirty three other children are still missing.
As dawn came, Mr Abubaker and other parents thronged anxiously to the schoolyard after hearing about the abduction, and later provided the school management with names, photos and other information that could help in the search of the missing school boys.
Islamist extremist group Boko Haram has taken responsibility for last week’s kidnapping of hundreds of schoolboys from a school in north-western Nigeria.
Gunmen descended upon the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara on Friday, Dec. 11, and carried out a mass kidnapping. About 330 of the school’s 800 students remain missing, although some were able to escape.
One 17-year-old boy told BBC Hausa he crawled through the forest for miles to escape the abductors.
The Daily Nigerian said it received an audio message from Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, claiming the group was behind the kidnapping.
Shekau said the group abducted the boys because Western education conflicts with the tenants of Islam. Authorities originally thought bandits sometimes associated with Boko Haram were responsible for the attack.
Boko Haram claims abduction of 330 students in Nigeria By SAM OLUKOYA and CARLEY PETESCH, Associated Press
Published: December 15, 2020, 3:50pm
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5 Photos Parents of the missing Government Science secondary school students wait for news on their children in Kankara , Nigeria, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. Rebels from the Boko Haram extremist group claimed responsibility Tuesday for abducting hundreds of boys from a school in Nigeria s northern Katsina State last week in one of the largest such attacks in years, raising fears of a growing wave of violence in the region. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) Photo Gallery
LAGOS, Nigeria Rebels from the Boko Haram extremist group claimed responsibility Tuesday for abducting hundreds of boys from a school in Nigeria’s northern Katsina State last week in one of the largest such attacks in years, raising fears of a growing wave of violence in the region.
Lagos, Nigeria
Rebels from the Boko Haram extremist group claimed responsibility Tuesday for abducting hundreds of boys from a school in Nigeria’s northern Katsina State last week in one of the largest such attacks in years, raising fears of a growing wave of violence in the region.
More than 330 students remain missing from the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara after gunmen with assault rifles attacked their school Friday night, although scores of others managed to escape.
The government and the attackers are negotiating the fate of the boys, according to Garba Shehu, a spokesman for Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.