More than 100 girls ‘missing’ after Boko Haram school attack

Damaturu, Nigeria | AFP | More than 100 girls were missing on Wednesday, two days after a Boko Haram attack on their school in northeast Nigeria that has raised fears of a repeat of the 2014 Chibok kidnapping that shocked the world.

Islamist militants stormed the Government Girls Science Secondary School in Dapchi, Yobe state, on Monday evening. Locals initially said the girls and their teachers fled.

But fears have been growing about the whereabouts of the students, and one schoolgirl who escaped said it was likely they were taken by Boko Haram fighters.

“We have every reason to suspect that they were taken away by the attackers,” said Aisha Yusuf Abdullahi, 16, who returned to her home in Yobe’s commercial hub, Potiskum.

Anxious parents and guardians converged on the school on Wednesday to demand answers, with conflicting figures as to how many girls were missing.

The Yobe state governor Ibrahim Gaidam said “over 50” remained unaccounted for while the police commissioner of the state said 111 were still missing.

“Eight hundred and fifteen students returned to the school and were visibly seen, out of 926 in the school,” said state police commissioner Abdulmaliki Sumonu.

“The rest are missing. No case of abduction has so far been established,” he told reporters in the Yobe state capital, Damaturu.

The length of time since the attack and Boko Haram’s use of kidnapping as a weapon during its nearly nine-year insurgency has increased fears of another mass abduction.

The jihadists gained worldwide notoriety in April 2014 when they abducted 276 girls from their school in Chibok, in neighbouring Borno state.

Fifty-seven escaped in the immediate aftermath and since May last year, 107 have either escaped or been released as part of a government-brokered deal.

Abubakar Shehu, whose niece is among those missing from Dapchi, said a search of surrounding villages had drawn a blank.

“We have the fear that we are dealing with another Chibok scenario,” he added.

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The state-run boarding school in Dapchi caters for girls aged 11 and above from across Yobe state, which is one of three worst affected by the insurgency.

Abdullahi said Monday’s attack was “a traumatic experience” and she was lucky to escape. She and others spent the evening in hiding after running to the principal’s office.