The United States on Tuesday condemned “in the strongest terms” the abduction of more than 300 schoolboys from their school in northwestern Nigeria and was investigating Boko Haram’s claim of responsibility, a spokesperson for the State Department said.The United States on Tuesday condemned “in the strongest terms” the abduction of more than 300 schoolboys from their school in northwestern Nigeria and was investigating Boko Haram’s claim of responsibility, a spokesperson for the State Department said.
A man identifying himself as the leader of Nigeria’s Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden” in the local Hausa language, said the Islamist group was behind the kidnapping which occurred on Friday at a secondary school in Nigeria’s state of Katsina.
Boko Haram has waged an insurgency in the northeast of Nigeria since 2009 but has not previously claimed attacks in the northwest.
The claims in the audio tape, if true, could mark a widening influence of jihadist groups operating in northeastern Nigeria, political analysts said.
They could also signal that jihadists have formed alliances with militant groups operating in the Sahel, which could further destabilise the impoverished north of Africa’s most populous nation which plays a pivotal role in regional stability.
Katsina state authorities said about 320 boys were missing and Nigeria’s government said it had spoken to the kidnappers, who have sought a ransom from at least one parent.
“We’re begging the government to please try their best to get their release,” Hajiya Ummi, whose 15-year-old son Mujtaba is among those missing, said by telephone from her home in Bakori town in Katsina.
“His friends told me he was sick in bed when the bandits struck. He could hardly move but they dragged him out with the rest of the abducted students,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion.
Katsina officials had ordered all state schools in close because they did not know the attackers’ motives. Neighbouring Zamfara state on Monday also ordered its government boarding schools to close, according to a circular seen by Reuters.
