MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th June, 2021) The Nigerian army has freed five female students and two school teachers, who had been abducted by gunmen a day prior in the country's north-west, Nigerian Premium Times newspaper said on Friday.
On Thursday, the local media reported that a group of armed men kidnapped some 30 female students and three teachers from a federal government school in the state of Kebbi.
"Nigerian Army troops operating under the auspices of Operation Hadarin Daji, who have been on a hot pursuit of kidnappers and bandits following an unfortunate abduction incident in Federal Government College, Birnin Yawuri yesterday 17 June 2021, have so far rescued two teachers and five students after a fierce exchange of fire with the criminals," the army's statement said, as published by the Premium Times.
According to the newspaper, the army carried out a special operation to rescue the hostages early Friday morning. The kidnappers were reportedly divided into two groups, one of which transported the kidnapped children, and the other � livestock.
As a result of the operation, the Nigerian forces managed to rescue seven people and retrieve 800 head of cattle, while one soldier and one student died in the action, the newspaper said. The troops reportedly continue pursuing the kidnappers to free the remaining hostages.
Nigeria is regularly subjected to attacks, cattle rustling, killings, and kidnappings, conducted either by bandits or jihadists for ransom or other purposes. Since December, militant groups abducted more than 700 students for ransom in northern Nigeria.
Boko Haram. which means "Western education is forbidden," the militant group linked to the Islamic State terror group (banned in Russia), appears to have intensified its attacks and abductions of schoolchildren across the Western African nation over the past several months.
