National emergency declared as kidnappings spike

Nigeria's security situation is in the global spotlight following a spike in kidnappings amid ongoing attacks by US President Donald Trump against the country. Legalbrief writes that the Nigerian Government has denied Trump's claims that Christians in the country are being persecuted, blaming the recent spate of kidnappings on jihadist groups Boko Haram and Islamic State in West Africa Province (Iswap). But BBC News says this has been disputed by analysts who say the crimes are committed by criminal gangs locally known as ‘bandits’. This is the first time the government has stated who it believes is responsible for the kidnappings but it has not revealed any evidence to back its claims. Kidnap for ransom has become big business in parts of Nigeria in recent years – with the culprits ranging from kidnap gangs, jihadists and separatists. It is a lucrative money-spinner but officials consistently deny paying ransoms. Acled – an international monitoring group that analyses attacks by armed groups – said in all three cases Fulani militia groups, locally called ‘bandits’, were responsible for the kidnappings. Fulani herders have come into conflict with both Muslim and Christian communities across Nigeria. It said the biggest of the recent kidnappings, in which more than 200 schoolchildren were reportedly abducted from St Mary's Catholic School, ‘appears to have been partly carried out to spite the government and achieve some political objectives’. ‘Local displacement for mining has become the emerging pattern of the Fulani militia activities as seen in Zamfara state and the Birnin Gwari area of Kaduna state.’ Nigerian officials and analysts say that members of all faiths are victims of the violence and kidnappings, and say it is not true that Christians are being targeted.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has declared a nationwide security emergency and ordered the army and police to recruit thousands of additional personnel after the wave of mass kidnappings.Tinubu said the police would hire 20 000 more officers, raising their strength to 50 000, and authorised the use of National Youth Service Corps camps as training centres. RFI reports he also told the police to withdraw officers from VIP guard duties for redeployment to conflict zones after crash retraining. He gave the Department of State Services approval to deploy trained forest guards and recruit more staff to flush out armed groups hiding in forests. ‘This is a national emergency, and we are responding by deploying more boots on the ground, especially in security-challenged areas,’ Tinubu said, adding there would be ‘no more hiding places for agents of evil’. The announcement follows recent attacks in Kebbi, Borno, Zamfara, Niger, Yobe and Kwara states, where dozens of civilians have been killed and kidnapped. Over the past week, assailants kidnapped two dozen Muslim schoolgirls in Kebbi, 38 worshippers, 315 schoolchildren and teachers from a Catholic school in Niger state, 13 young women and girls walking near a farm, and another 10 women and children. Tinubu commended security forces for rescuing 24 schoolgirls in Kebbi and 38 worshippers in Kwara. He vowed to free the 265 children and their teachers abducted from the St Mary's Catholic boarding school in Niger state last Friday after just 50 of them managed to escape.

Several parents of the 303 kidnapped schoolchildren told AP that the government had given them no information about rescue efforts and said one parent had died of a heart attack from the stress. ‘Nobody from the government has briefed us about the abduction,’ said Emmanuel Ejeh, whose 12-year-old son was taken from the Catholic school in the remote region of Papiri. A spokesperson for the presidency, Bayo Onanuga, did not directly address parents’ claims of being left without updates. Onanuga told the AP on Wednesday that the military is mounting pressure on the gunmen to release the children. No armed group has claimed responsibility for the abduction. For years, heavily armed criminal gangs have been intensifying attacks in rural areas of northwest and central Nigeria, where there is little state presence, killing thousands and conducting kidnappings for ransom. The UN's children's agency, Unicef, last year said just 37% of schools across 10 states in Nigeria's volatile north have early-warning systems to detect threats. 

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Al Jazeera reports that in the latest attack, armed attackers abducted 13 women and an infant during an overnight raid in northeastern Nigeria. A bride and 10 of her bridesmaids were among those abducted on the night of Saturday to Sunday from the village of Chacho in Sokoto State, a resident told AFP. ‘Bandits stormed our village last night and kidnapped 14 persons, including a bride and 10 bridesmaids, from a house in Zango neighbourhood,’ said Aliyu Abdullahi, a resident of Chacho village. A baby, the baby’s mother and another woman were also taken, Abdullahi added. According to Abdullahi, Chacho had already been targeted in October by bandits who kidnapped 13 people. ‘We had to pay ransom to secure their freedom. Now, we are faced with the same situation,’ he said. A Nigerian intelligence report seen by the AFP confirmed the attack. ‘Sokoto witnessed a notable uptick in bandit-initiated abductions in November, culminating in the highest number of such attacks in the past year,’ the report found. It suggested that deals struck by neighbouring states in the hopes of getting the bandits to agree to stop their activities may be partly responsible for the uptick. Last week, attackers took 25 students in Kebbi State and more than 300 in Niger State. Those abducted from Kebbi were rescued and united with their parents, while there is an ongoing search for the others. Mass kidnappings for ransom have become common in northern Nigeria, where armed gangs target schools and rural communities, often overwhelming local security forces.

In addition, in the past fortnight alone, there have been three mass kidnappings in the region:

* 17 November - in Maga, Kebbi state, at Government Girls Comprehensive secondary school. Two people were killed and 25 abducted including one teacher - now all free
* 18 November - in Eruku, Kwara state, at Christ Apostolic Church. Two were killed and 38 abducted - all since freed
* 21 November - in Papiri, Niger state, at St Mary's Catholic School. More than 250 children and 12 members of staff reportedly kidnapped, although officials question these figures.

The deteriorating situation in Nigeria's Middle Belt prompted a joint urgent appeal by eyeWitness to Atrocities (eyeWitness) – founded by the International Bar Association (IBA) – and the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) to the UN documenting the grave violation of rights, including in respect to the right to life; and the right to housing and food, which fall under the right to an adequate standard of living. EyeWitness to Atrocities and ICON called for the UN to take immediate action, including by launching a fact-finding mission and a dedicated country mandate, as armed violence intensifies and communities face mounting threats, notes Legalbrief. 'In parallel to the ongoing violence between herder and farming communities in the Middle Belt, last week saw the abduction of more than 300 children and members of staff from a Catholic boarding school in Niger State. This mass abduction highlights the wider climate of insecurity affecting many parts of Nigeria and underscores the importance of decisive action to improve security and accountability for all forms of violence.' In a statement, they said the urgent appeal was submitted to three UN-appointed Special Rapporteurs: on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions (Morris Tidball-Binz); on the right to adequate housing (Balakrishnan Rajagopal); and the right to food (Michael Fakhri). They highlighted that armed attackers are killing civilians, destroying property – including homes – and damaging agricultural lands, crops, food reserves and storage structures as part of patterns of violence between certain herder and farming communities in the Middle Belt. The attacks are leading to mass displacement, with women and children often most affected.