Security Operatives Launch Manhunt To Rescue 317 Jangebe Schoolgirls Abducted In Zamfara

The Zamfara State Police Command in collaboration with the
military has commenced a joint search and rescue operations with a
view to rescuing the kidnapped 317 Zamfara students.

The girls, students of Government Girls Science Secondary School
Jangebe in Talata Mafara LGA were abducted around 1:00 am on
Friday.

The Commissioner of Police CP Abutu Yaro, the Force Commander
Operations Hadarin Daji, Major General Aminu Bande, Brigade
Commander 1 Brigade, Nigeria Army Gusau and other state government
officials led a heavily armed Re-enforcement team to Jangebe to
complement the ongoing rescue operation in the locations where the
students were believed to have been taken to.

The CP while interfacing with the Principal of the school and
the parents appealed to them to be calm as joint efforts of the
Police and other security agencies will assuredly lead to the
successful rescue of the students.

There was no immediate comment from the federal government and
no claim of responsibility.

Analysts said the culprits were likely one of the heavily armed
bandit groups that have become increasingly powerful across swaths
of Nigeria’s northwest, and not the jihadist groups based in the
northeast.

“Kidnapping for ransom is now the most thriving industry in
Nigeria,” said Bulama Bukarti, a terrorism analyst and columnist
with the Daily Trust, northern Nigeria’s most popular
newspaper.

Nigerian officials are split between those who favor dialogue
with the criminal groups seizing the schoolchildren and those who
favor a zero tolerance approach.

President Muhammadu Buhari has quietly dropped his claim that
the country’s insurgencies are technically defeated and conceded
that the nation is in “a state of emergency.” The country, which
has one of Africa’s strongest armies and is a strong U.S.
counterterrorism ally, is struggling to contain multiple threats: a
10-year jihadist rebellion, and swelling banditry and lawlessness
that have metastasized into a conflict of overlapping militant
groups.

After months of criticism over rising insecurity across the
country’s northern states, Mr. Buhari reluctantly agreed to
reshuffle his military chiefs in January.

Shehu Sani, a former senator who studied in the town of Kagara
as a boy, said the groups were targeting children because they
yield the highest ransom payment.

“We are stuck in the most vicious cycle,” he said. “We need help
to acquire new technologies to beat this—and to find the children
these people have taken.”

The Zamfara State Police Command in collaboration with the
military has commenced a joint search and rescue operations with a
view to rescuing the kidnapped 317 Zamfara students.

The girls, students of Government Girls Science Secondary School
Jangebe in Talata Mafara LGA were abducted around 1:00 am on
Friday.

The Commissioner of Police CP Abutu Yaro, the Force Commander
Operations Hadarin Daji, Major General Aminu Bande, Brigade
Commander 1 Brigade, Nigeria Army Gusau and other state government
officials led a heavily armed Re-enforcement team to Jangebe to
complement the ongoing rescue operation in the locations where the
students were believed to have been taken to.

The CP while interfacing with the Principal of the school and
the parents appealed to them to be calm as joint efforts of the
Police and other security agencies will assuredly lead to the
successful rescue of the students.

There was no immediate comment from the federal government and
no claim of responsibility.

Analysts said the culprits were likely one of the heavily armed
bandit groups that have become increasingly powerful across swaths
of Nigeria’s northwest, and not the jihadist groups based in the
northeast.

“Kidnapping for ransom is now the most thriving industry in
Nigeria,” said Bulama Bukarti, a terrorism analyst and columnist
with the Daily Trust, northern Nigeria’s most popular
newspaper.

Nigerian officials are split between those who favor dialogue
with the criminal groups seizing the schoolchildren and those who
favor a zero tolerance approach.

President Muhammadu Buhari has quietly dropped his claim that
the country’s insurgencies are technically defeated and conceded
that the nation is in “a state of emergency.” The country, which
has one of Africa’s strongest armies and is a strong U.S.
counterterrorism ally, is struggling to contain multiple threats: a
10-year jihadist rebellion, and swelling banditry and lawlessness
that have metastasized into a conflict of overlapping militant
groups.

After months of criticism over rising insecurity across the
country’s northern states, Mr. Buhari reluctantly agreed to
reshuffle his military chiefs in January.

Shehu Sani, a former senator who studied in the town of Kagara
as a boy, said the groups were targeting children because they
yield the highest ransom payment.

“We are stuck in the most vicious cycle,” he said. “We need help
to acquire new technologies to beat this—and to find the children
these people have taken.”