Suspected Boko Haram fighters attacked Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School in Askira-Uba Local Government Area of Borno State on Friday morning, and residents said dozens of students were taken as the gunmen swept through the school on motorcycles.
Premium Times reported that about 42 students were kidnapped in the raid. The attackers arrived on about 18 motorcycles, with roughly three armed men on each bike, according to the account that has emerged from the community. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmark of Boko Haram, which has used school abductions as one of its most feared tactics for years.
A teacher at the school said armed attackers arrived on motorcycles and that many students were taken away. Ubaidallah Hasaan said the gunmen “took several students with them,” while another teacher said: “Despite some students escaping to the bushes, I can tell you many were taken away.”
Police said the situation was still being checked and that some students fled during the pandemonium. Nahum Daso said, “As of now, the details are sketchy. There is no full confirmation yet that the students were abducted. Most of them went away inside the bush to run away for their life. We are currently working on the headcount.” He also said he had spoken with the divisional police officer in Askira-Uba, who told him that about 09 hours Friday morning there was a series of gunshots that sent pupils and children running in fear and panic.
The attack happened in Mussa, near the Sambisa Forest, a longstanding hideout for insurgents. Borno and neighbouring states have seen repeated attacks on schools and communities despite ongoing military operations, and the abduction of schoolchildren has remained a recurring feature of the insurgency since Boko Haram launched its uprising in 2009. The Chibok kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls in 2014 remains the best-known case, but it was not the last; last year, two school abductions in northern Nigeria took over 300 children, including at least 23 children in one raid.
No deaths or injuries were reported in Friday’s attack, but the central question is no longer whether the raid fits Boko Haram’s pattern. It does. Police are still trying to confirm how many students were taken, and for families in Askira-Uba, that number will decide whether Friday ends as another warning or another tragedy.
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