Twenty-four schoolgirls who were abducted from Government Girls Secondary School, Maga, in Kebbi State, northwest Nigeria were released on 25 November, reportedly following the deployment of additional police tactical units alongside military personnel and vigilante groups. Two of the girls had escaped earlier.
The students were taken on 17 November by armed assailants who scaled the walls of their school at around 4am, killing the assistant principal, and severely injuring a security guard who later died in hospital. The abductions reportedly occurred shortly after a military detachment left the school premises.
The release of the students came amid news of the death of Rev James Audu of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Ekati village, Patigi Local Government Area (LGA), Kwara State. The reverend was abducted on 28 August, and his captors initially demanded N100 million (approximately GBP 52,000), which was negotiated down to N5 million (GBP 2,600). However, they demanded an additional N45 million (GBP 23,000) upon receiving the agreed amount, and reportedly killed him before further negotiations could take place.
News also emerged of the abduction of at least eight people - two men and six women - from Biresawa village in Tsanyawa LGA, Kano State in an armed raid that occurred between 11pm and midnight on 24 November. In addition, on 23 November thirteen girls aged between 15 and 20 were abducted by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) while harvesting farmlands in the Mussa district of Askira-Uba LGA in Borno State. One girl managed to escape, and most inhabitants have now fled the district.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that the increasing insecurity across northern Nigeria, including the surge in attacks, is creating unprecedented levels of hunger that is impacting rural farming communities especially. Also on 25 November the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) issued a forthright statement urging the government to act decisively to restore security and citing several recent calamities, including the killing of over 70 people, the destruction of at least 300 homes, and the displacement of over 3,000 families from the Kufai Ahmadu and Chanchanji communities of Takum LGA in Taraba State in a series of deadly attacks by Fulani militia: ‘When criminals can strike schools, farms, and communities with impunity, it violates our shared humanity and endangers the future of our nation.’
The bishops called on the government ‘at all levels’ to fulfil its ‘foremost duty… to protect the lives and property of all citizens,’ and insisted that ‘reports of delayed or withheld security responses in some affected communities be thoroughly investigated in order to rebuild public trust.’
The CBCN statement also drew attention to ongoing long term and systematic violations of the rights of Christian communities in northern states, including the destruction of churches and denial of land for church construction even in federal institutions, expressing particular unease about the ‘overreach of Sharia Courts in some states,’ which posed ‘serious constitutional concerns, as it threatens Nigeria’s secular character and infringes on the rights of Christian minorities’, and the excesses of the shari’a enforcement groups such as the Hisbah, whose ‘rigid interpretations of religious norms, often influenced by extremist ideologies, undermine communal harmony and threaten national cohesion.’
Additionally, the bishops demanded justice for Deborah Emmanuel (aka Deborah Yakubu), the Christian student killed extrajudicially at her college in Sokoto State following an unproven blasphemy accusation, ‘as impunity in such cases undermines the rule of law and endangers the rights of all citizens.’
On 17 November the Community Court of Justice, ECOWAS, officially began the process of enforcing its earlier ruling on Kano State’s blasphemy legislation by signing and delivering a writ of execution regarding the repeal or review of Section 210 of the Penal Code of Kano State, Section 382(b) of Kano State Sharia Penal Code Law of 2000, and all similar legislation to ensure compliance with Nigeria’s obligations under the African Charter of Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
CSW’s CEO Scot Bower said: ‘CSW welcomes the release of the 24 girls abducted from their school in Kebbi State earlier this month. The reported deployment of additional police tactical units and military personnel demonstrates that the Nigerian authorities are capable of responding to terrorist threats in the region. However, the paucity of information surrounding rescues in which perpetrators appear to have faced no consequences is not only perplexing; it further undermines both public confidence and the rule of law. We also extend our deepest condolences to the family, loved ones and congregation of Rev James Audu, and call for a decisive response to the recent surge in attacks and abductions which, once again, are merely a snapshot of the violence to which Christian communities have been subjected in Nigeria’s northern and central states for over a decade.’