Nigeria's history of mass abductions

NIGERIAN gunmen have kidnapped more than 300 students and teachers from a school in north central Niger state in one of the country’s largest mass abductions.

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Since Islamist militants kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls from Chibok town more than a decade ago, Nigeria has struggled with a series of mass kidnappings, mostly carried out by criminal gangs looking for ransom payments.

Often, gunmen attack remote boarding schools where they know a lack of security presence will make for soft targets. Most victims are released after negotiations.

In April 2014, Boko Haram jihadists attacked a girls school in Chibok in northeast Borno State, the centre of Nigeria’s long-running Islamist insurgency that has killed more than 40 000 people since 2009.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said he would sell off the girls, mostly Christians. The attack triggered the #BringBackOurGirls movement.

Some of the girls escaped early on, others were released or rescued by security forces. Some returned with children they gave birth to in captivity. Dozens of the Chibok girls are still missing.

The army rescued one of the girls as late as 2024.