Kidnappers demand practically £500k for launch of 286 faculty hostages in Nigeria

Gunmen who kidnapped a minimum of 286 college students and employees from a faculty in Nigeria have demanded one billion naira – the equal of £486,000 – for his or her launch, group leaders have mentioned.

The kids and adults have been kidnapped final Thursday in Kuriga, a city in Nigeria‘s north-western Kaduna State.

At least 100 of the pupils are aged 12 or youthful.

Jubril Aminu, a spokesperson for the households of the hostages, mentioned the abductors threatened to kill the captives throughout a cellphone name on Tuesday.

“They gave an ultimatum to pay the ransom within 20 days, effective from the date of the kidnap,” he mentioned. “They said they will kill all the students and the staff if the ransom demand is not met.”

Local councillor Idris Ibrahim mentioned the abductors had referred to as from an undisclosed quantity that authorities have been attempting to hint.

The ransom demand is the equal of greater than £1,600 per hostage – which is greater than the typical revenue an individual in Nigeria earns in a yr, in keeping with the International Monetary Fund.

Rashidat Hamza is certainly one of many dad and mom left in despair after 5 of her six kids, aged between seven and 18, have been kidnapped.

“We don’t know what to do, but we believe in God,” she mentioned on Saturday.

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Shehu Lawal, the daddy of a 13-year-old boy who’s amongst these feared kidnapped, added: “Since this happened, my brain has been muddled.

“My little one did not even eat breakfast earlier than leaving. His mom fainted [at the news].”

The Nigerian government has urged the country’s security forces to secure the release of the hostages “as a matter of urgency” without paying any ransom, information minister Mohammed Idris said on Wednesday.

The raid on 7 March was initially considered Nigeria’s first mass kidnapping since 2021, nevertheless it later emerged that fifty folks, largely girls, had additionally been adducted by suspected insurgents within the distant Gamboru area on 6 March.

A 3rd mass kidnapping then came about on Saturday when 15 kids and one girl have been taken from the Gidan Bakuso village in Sokoto state.

In 2014, Islamist militants kidnapped a whole lot of schoolgirls from Chibok in Borno State, sparking the Bring Back Our Girls marketing campaign.

A decade later, officers estimate a minimum of 1,4000 Nigerian college students have been kidnapped in comparable circumstances and a few – together with practically 100 of the Chibok women – stay lacking.

Bola Tinubu received Nigeria’s presidential race final yr after campaigning on a promise to tighten safety and cease kidnappings.