Madrid. Save the Children has denounced that more than 1,680 school-age boys and girls have been kidnapped in Nigeria since the abduction of the so-called “Chibok girls” in 2014, in a case that sparked international attention on the operations of Nigerian criminal gangs. , the so-called “bandits” who profit from kidnapping and extortion.
The NGO’s analysis reveals that, once the international fervor had subsided, the “bandits” have continued with their criminal activities, from kidnapping to murder: more than 180 schoolchildren have been killed and almost 90 have been injured between April 2014 and December 2022, with an estimated balance of 60 school personnel kidnapped and 14 murdered.
Most of these attacks have taken place in northwestern Nigeria (49 assaults), followed by north-central Nigeria (11 attacks), according to the NGO.
“Almost ten years after the tragic kidnapping of the Chibok girls made international headlines,” laments Save the Children’s country director Famari Barro, “more than 90 of them are still detained or missing, and countless children and Teachers continue to live under the threat of violence, forcing many to flee or interrupt their education, sometimes forever.
“The combination of trauma and loss of education resulting from these attacks is likely to last a lifetime unless children are given the means and support to recover from the traumatic events they have been through and are able to return to school,” adds the NGO.
