Northern Nigerian students, who were abducted on December 11 from the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina state, have pleaded for help in a new video released on Thursday by the Abubakar Shekau-led faction of the terrorist organization, Boko Haram.
Hundreds of students, all boys, were abducted when suspected Boko Haram terrorists attacked their school on Friday night.
The gunmen broke the school gate, fired many shots and gathered the students, telling them they were security operatives.
Days after, the government said troops had located and surrounded their captors and were ready to rescue the students. But the claim did not materialize, as the students have been in captivity now for almost a week.
In the video released on Thursday, one of the boys who spoke both in English and Hausa said they were 520 in number, adding that some of them were killed by the terrorists when the government sent troops to rescue them.
The governor of Katsina state, Aminu Masari, had said 333 were captured or missing.
The boy pleaded with the government to negotiate with their captors and pay them a ransom. He advised against a military intervention.
“We have been caught by the gangs of Abu Shekau; some of us were killed,” the boy said.
On the background, some of the boys were seen crying.
As he spoke, a young member of Boko Haram could be seen standing in the midst of the abducted students wearing a military uniform, a face mask and carrying an assault rifle.
The abductors said in the video that they kidnapped the students because the government reportedly refused to stop killing and arresting Fulani.
“We did this because you refused to sop killing and arresting Fulani,” one of them said.
The student who spoke in the video then pleaded with the government to stop attacking Boko Haram. “All the armies that you sent here can do nothing to them,” he said, urging the government to “dissolve vigilante gangs and close down all types of schools, excluding Islamiyya.”
Islamiyya schools are Qur’anic schools. Boko Haram believes western education is evil, although many often use products of science and technology, including assault weapons, phones and laptops.
Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa. Simon covers President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the U.S. government, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington D.C. and New York City.