By Martin Cole-
Gunmen in Nigeria have abducted at least eight people from a hospital in the north-west of the country, including a baby, Nigerian police has said.
At least eight people were also abducted from the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Centre in Zaria early on Sunday morning, including a 12-month-old child were among those seized, said a hospital worker.
There has been a recent spate of abductions from schools and universities for ransom. More than 1,000 students have been taken since December 2020, and nine have been killed. More than 200 students are still missing, some of them as young as three.
Heavily-armed criminal gangs often attack villages to loot, steal cattle and abduct for ransom in northwest and central Nigeria, but since the start of the year they have increasingly targeted schools and colleges.
Gunmen scaled a fence to break into the Bethel Baptist High School in Kaduna state in the early hours of Monday, taking away most of the 165 pupils boarding overnight.
“The kidnappers took away 140 students, only 25 students escaped. We still have no idea where the students were taken,” Emmanuel Paul, a teacher at the school told AFP.
Kaduna state police spokesman Mohammed Jalige confirmed the early Monday morning attack, but could not give details on the number of pupils taken.
“Tactical police teams went after the kidnappers,” he said. “We are still on the rescue mission.”
The attack took place at the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Centre in Zaria early on Sunday morning.
Two nurses and a 12-month-old child were among those seized, according to a hospital spokesperson.
There has been a recent spate of abductions from schools and universities for ransom.
On Monday, reports of another mass kidnapping from a school near Kaduna city, about 80km (50 miles) south-west of Zaria, also emerged.
A local Christian leader said that of the 180 students in the school, only 20 had been accounted for so far. However, he said some of them may have escaped. Police said the gunmen who attacked the hospital in Zaria, thought to be from criminal groups known locally as “bandits”, opened fire on a police station in the city.
While they were engaged in the shootout, another group attacked the hospital.
“The attack on the police station was a distraction whilst another group attacked the dormitories of the health centre workers,” a local resident told AFP news agency.
The group escaped with the victims into a nearby forest.
More than 1,000 students have been taken since December and nine have been killed. More than 200 students are still missing, some of them as young as three.
Authorities say recent attacks on schools in the north-west have been carried out by bandits, a loose term for kidnappers, armed robbers, cattle rustlers and other armed militia operating in the region who are largely motivated by money.
Since the well-publicized abduction in 2014 of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok secondary school by Boko Haram Islamist militants in Borno state, more armed groups have resorted to mass abduction of students.
This latest attack is shocking in that it involves at least one infant, but this is not the first time a hospital has been targeted.
In late April, armed gunmen took two female nurses from a hospital in Kajuru area of Kaduna state. Schools and universities in the state have also been repeatedly targeted by kidnappers since March.
The state governor told the BBC that he believes kidnappers have come to Kaduna from other states, because he’s been vocal about his decision not to engage with kidnappers in any way.
But now even Governor Nasir El Rufai has succumbed to pressure from the kidnappers – he recently withdrew his son from a local school where he had enrolled him to promote confidence in public schools. He told the BBC that he’d decided to take his son out to protect other pupils. This latest move will embolden his critics who say his tough stance is counter-productive.
But kidnappings continue to take place, both in states where governors engage with kidnappers, and in states where they don’t.