They went to school but ended up as hostages. 287 children are missing in Nigeria’s forests
Associated PressABUJA, Nigeria — Security forces swept through large forests in Nigeria’s northwest region on Friday in search of nearly 300 children abducted from their school by motorcycle-riding gunmen in the latest mass kidnapping, which analysts and activists blamed on the failure of intelligence and a slow security response. “I am confident that the victims will be rescued,” said Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who was elected last year after promising to end the country’s kidnapping crisis. “Nothing else is acceptable to me and the waiting family members.” No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks but locals blamed it on the bandits who carry out frequent mass killings and abductions for huge ransoms in remote villages across Nigeria’s northwest and central regions. School abductions across northern Nigeria have reduced since early last year but the structural conditions enabling them have remained, said James Barnett, a researcher specializing in West Africa at the U.S.-based Hudson Institute.