March 7, 2024
Calling on the Nigerian authorities to ensure their safe rescue, the global human rights body said that schools should be a place of safety, adding that no child should have to choose between their education and their life.
Amnesty International (AI) has expressed regrets and total condemnation of the abduction of 200 primary and secondary school students with their teachers in Kuriga, Kaduna State.
Calling on the Nigerian authorities to ensure their safe rescue, the global human rights body said that schools should be a place of safety, adding that no child should have to choose between their education and their life.
Some terrorists were said to have stormed LGEA Primary School, Kuriga (1), Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State on Thursday morning and kidnapped scores of pupils and teachers.
The incident which reportedly happened at about 8:20 am immediately after the morning assembly.
SaharaReporters had learnt that residents scampered for safety as the hoodlums shot sporadically.
Locals said the headteacher of the school and some other staff were among the victims.
However reacting in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, the Amnesty International appealed to Nigerian authorities to take concrete measures immediately to prevent attacks on schools,
The statement partly read: "Amnesty International condemns the appalling abduction of 200 primary and secondary school students and their teachers in #Kuriga, Kaduna State.
"We are calling on the Nigerian authorities to safely rescue the students and hold the suspected perpetrators to account.
"Schools should be places of safety, and no child should have to choose between their education and their life.
"The Nigerian authorities must take measures immediately to prevent attacks on schools, to protect children’s lives and their right to education."
SaharaReporters reports that kidnap of school children had become a routine or regular feature in northern Nigeria since the infamous abduction of Chibok girls.
On the night of 14–15 April 2014, 276 mostly Christian female students aged from 16 to 18 were kidnapped by the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram, a development that attracted global condemnation to the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan.