More than 50 children have been kidnapped from schools in the same town, it has been claimed. Gunmen stormed three schools in the same town in north-eastern Nigeria on Friday, according to teachers and residents in Mussa, and took the pupils.
Most of the reportedly missing children are aged between two and five and were taken while classes were in session. Eyewitnesses who saw the attacks said the suspects used the children as human shields while fleeing on motorbikes, preventing security forces from opening fire. The kidnappings reportedly took place at Government Day Secondary School, Mussa Central Primary School and the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Primary School. No terror group has yet claimed responsibility for the shocking raid and officials in Nigeria have so far remained silent. But reports suggest the massacre-style school abductions bear the hallmarks of Boko Haram, the Islamist extremist group which has terrorised north-eastern Nigeria for years while battling rival faction Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap).
Borno state has suffered decades of bloodshed and instability, with terrified residents now reportedly fleeing Mussa in the wake of the latest horror attack.
One father, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, said his wife was left “inconsolable” after their six-year-old daughter was snatched by the gunmen.
Abdu Dunama, headmaster of Mussa Central Primary School, said panic erupted after gunfire rang out before armed men stormed into the school grounds and rounded up terrified youngsters.
He revealed that 34 children – most of them nursery pupils aged five and under-– were dragged from classrooms and taken away by the attackers.
Residents said the suspected militants swept into the town on motorcycles shortly after troops on patrol had left the area.
Witnesses described scenes of chaos as gunmen opened fire sporadically, sending residents scrambling for cover while helpless parents watched from a nearby hill as children were loaded onto motorcycles and driven away.
Some older pupils managed to escape by running into nearby bushes during the terrifying ordeal, according to residents.
At one point, Ali Ndume, the senator representing Borno South district where the school is based, said he had been informed by school authorities that 32 pupils were abducted from the school, while another 10 were seized from nearby homes.
Borno – a region roughly the size of Ireland bordering Cameroon, Chad and Niger – remains at the centre of the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency, which has raged for more than 15 years.
Borno South senatorial district was the scene of the infamous 2014 Chibok schoolgirl kidnapping, when Boko Haram abducted more than 270 girls in an attack that sparked global outrage. The state had not suffered another mass school kidnapping since then.
This largely farming community, already battling poverty and insecurity, is now desperately pleading with the government to help bring the children home safely.
Mr Dunama said troops remain on the ground and are continuing efforts to track down the abductors.
