Five girls who were among 73 children kidnapped students from Zamfara school in northwestern Nigeria have been rescued.
Command’s spokesman, SP Mohammed Shehu, in a statement said the Zamfara State Police Command wished to announce the unconditional and safe rescue of five out of the 73 abducted students of Government Day Secondary school Kaya in Maradun LGA.
“It would be recalled that, upon the abduction of 73 Male and Female students, the Zamfara State Police Command in Collaboration with other security agencies and the state government have swung into action by deploying a joint search and rescue team to Kaya and its environ to effectively rescue the abducted students and reunite them with their families.
“The ongoing search and rescue mission is yielding positive result as five abducted female students were today rescued,” Zamfara State Police said in a statement.
“The victims were medically checked at the hospital, debriefed by the police and reunited … with their families,” it said.
He added that the Commissioner of Police CP Ayuba Elkana had assured the people of the State that, the ongoing search and rescue effort would be sustained, so that the remaining abducted students would be rescued hale and hearty.
Wednesday’s attack on a secondary school in the village of Kaya was the latest in a spree of raids on schools across the northwest by armed gangs seeking ransoms. More than 1,100 children and teenagers have been abducted since December.
Zamfara is among four states that have taken measures such as banning the sale of fuel in jerry cans and the transport of firewood by truck, in the hope of disrupting gangs who travel by motorbike and camp out in forests.