16th April, 2014
Nigerian soldiers are on the trail of Boko Haram gunmen who kidnapped about 100 girls from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno state. The gunmen stormed the Government Girls Secondary School after sundown on Monday, torching several buildings before opening fire on security forces guarding the school.
A senior security source, said troops had tracked the tyre marks of the convoy and were pursuing the Islamists.
Senator Ali Ndume, who represents the region, said the pursuit included soldiers backed by members of a local vigilante force formed last year to help fight Boko Haram.
“They are now combing the forest to rescue the school girls,” he told AFP. “They are being aided by surveillance helicopters,” he said, but noted the difficulty of the search in a vast forest that extends to neighbouring Cameroon.
Meanwhile the parents of the girls have pleaded for an end to their “nightmare”.
“They took away my daughter,” said one woman from Chibok, who like several parents requested anonymity given the uncertain fate of the children.
“I don’t know what to do,” she told AFP, urging the government to find the kidnappers. “They should not allow our daughters’ dreams to be shattered by these murderers.”
A father who said his daughter was taken in the attack described the ordeal as a “nightmare.”
“The whole town is in mourning,” he said from Chibok.
It is not yet clear why the Chibok school was open, but Emmanuel Sam, an education officer based in the area said the girls had been scheduled to write exams this week and that school was full when the attackers arrived.
Witnesses said the gunmen killed a police officer and soldier in the shootout and ultimately forced their way into the school.
They then forced the girls outside and loaded them on to trucks and drove off into the bush of the remote region, notorious for its terrible roads.
Some of the girls escaped by jumping off a truck when the gunmen became distracted by a vehicle that had broken down.
“They tried to fix it,” one of the girls who fled told AFP by phone from Chibok on condition of anonymity. “It was at this moment that some of us jumped out of the vehicles and ran into the bush.”
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and the military have sought to portray Boko Haram as being on the defensive and rapidly losing strength thanks to a massive offensive in the northeast launched last May.
But a major bombing just a few kilometres from the seat of government in Abuja and another attack targeting defenceless students has underscored the serious threat the Islamists continue to pose.
The military has so far refused to comment on the abductions, even as the tragedy dominates the front pages of most leading newspapers, and the status of the rescue operation remains unclear.
“We have turned to prayers,” said the mother whose daughter was taken. “(It) is all we have.”