Abuja, Nigeria:
Ten years after the Chibok schoolgirls’ kidnapping, Nigeria is dealing with a resurgence of mass abductions.
The anniversary of Boko Haram’s notorious assault comes after two large-scale kidnappings — one in the identical northeastern state as Chibok, the opposite in northwestern Kaduna state, the place over 130 kids have been seized from their college.
Because the nation grapples with safety challenges on a number of fronts, hostage-taking has spiralled right into a nationwide trade and turn into a favoured tactic of bandit gangs and jihadists.
What is the background?
Within the early 2000s, kidnappers focused oil employees within the Niger Delta, however the issue escalated following a 2009 jihadist insurgency within the northeast.
The kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from the city of Chibok on April 14, 2014 made headlines world wide. Nearly 100 of the captives stay lacking.
Boko Haram and rival group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) nonetheless often perform abductions.
However with the rise of closely armed gangs of criminals referred to as bandits, the northwest has turn into the area most affected by kidnappings.
The gangs have focused colleges and faculties up to now, however there had been a latest lull in such assaults earlier than the mass abduction in Kaduna state.
Kidnap gangs additionally function nationwide, going after everybody from schoolchildren to the households of conventional monarchs.
Some specialists consider the nation’s financial disaster is driving a rise in kidnappings as determined Nigerians flip to crime for earnings.
“It is all about lack of cash and poverty,” mentioned Emeka Okoro, an analyst with the Nigerian threat consultancy SBM Intelligence.
“Kidnapping is profitable — large quantities of cash have been paid up to now to rescue schoolchildren.”
How huge is the issue?
Information on kidnapping is unreliable due to under-reporting and day by day abductions in Nigeria hardly ever acquire world consideration.
SBM mentioned it had recorded 4,777 individuals kidnapped since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took workplace in Might final yr.
Greater than 1,680 pupils have been kidnapped in Nigerian colleges from early 2014 to the tip of 2022, in keeping with the charity Save the Youngsters.
What have the authorities finished?
In 2022, a legislation was launched that banned handing cash to kidnappers and officers deny paying ransoms to safe the discharge of victims.
Many households say they’ve little religion within the authorities and really feel they don’t have any alternative, usually pooling their financial savings to satisfy kidnappers’ calls for.
The authorities have used strategies like registering cell phone SIM playing cards to assist monitor kidnappers.
Police have deployed anti-kidnap items, however the forests the place gangs cover are troublesome to entry and management.
Within the northwest, authorities have tried to barter with bandits, strike amnesty offers and deploy vigilante teams.
However they’ve had little success and critics say the kidnapping disaster is uncontrolled.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
