By Faith Udo-
Confirmation by the Nigerian government that 110 girls are missing suspected Boko Haram militants attacked a school in the northeast of the country last week.
The kidnapping is believed to be the largest abduction since Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from their school in Chibok almost four years ago.
On Feb. 19, armed insurgents attacked the Government Science and Technical College in the town of Dapchi in Yobe state, Reuters reports.
Initially, it was unclear how many girls had been abducted, with some reports saying 50 were missing. The state government then said on Wednesday that some of the girls had been rescued, prompting confusion and then despair when it turned out not to be the case.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed gave the current update of the crisis to newsmen in Damaturu after a closed-door meeting between a Federal Government delegation, Yobe State Government, and other groups and agencies including security agencies, community leaders, and parents of the missing schoolgirls.
“It was a meeting between stakeholders to get the first-hand information and, out of the total register of 906 students in the school that day, 110 students are unaccounted,” he said.
The minister also said that the radical step of deploying police and Civil Defence Corps to all schools was in process.
He said security agencies were synergizing to ensure the rescue of every student abducted by the insurgents.
“No stone will be left unturned in our determination to rescue these girls” the minister assured.
He said the federal, state governments and parents would collaborate with security agents to work towards the successful rescuing of the students.
LIST
Alarmed parents have put together their own list of the missing, estimating that some 105 girls were unaccounted for in the wake of the attack, according to Reuters.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the Information Ministry confirmed the parents’ fears that 110 girls have disappeared.
On Monday, Nigeria said it had deployed extra troops and planes to search for the missing girl. President Muhammadu Buhari called the kidnappings a “national disaster.
The attack in Dapchi is similar to the horrifying experience of the 2014 Chibok abduction that garnered international attention with the worldwide #BringBackOurGirls campaign to pressure the Nigerian government into action. Over 100 girls are believed to still be missing from that initial abduction. Boko Haram is considered an evil extremist group bent on establishing an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria. The terrorist group is the scourge of the West African nation which has battled fiercely to eradicate the group. Boko Haram is anti-western education and opposes any and everything western. Their ambition to convert Nigeria into an Islamic Caliphate will always be met with strong opposition in a country known for its wide religious diversity and supposed tolerance other faiths.