1,000 children abducted in Nigeria in eight months – NGO

1,000 children abducted in Nigeria in eight months – NGO | The Informant247 News

Save the Children International, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), observed that over 1,000 students have been abducted from Nigerian schools this year.

According to the organisation, increasing cases of attacks on schools between 2020 and 2021 has led to many schools being shut, thereby putting the education system of the country at “extreme risk.”

“From January to August 2021, over 1000 children were abducted in Nigeria, with so many of them still in the hands of their abductors.

It could be recalled that many cases of attacks by gunmen on schools in Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Zamfara, and Niger states, during which hundreds of students were abducted for ransom.

Mercy Gichuhi, Country Director, Save the Children International Nigeria, said this in a statement issued on Friday to mark the world’s second International Day to Protect Education from Attacks.

“When education is under attack, a generation is attacked,” Ms. Gichuhi said. “Children, girls and women are more vulnerable at times of attack – putting them at a higher risk of trauma, fear, gender-based violence, physical and sexual abuse.