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00:00 When her 13-year-old daughter, Precious Sim, was kidnapped from her high school in northern
00:06 Nigeria in 2021, Esther Joseph says she went almost mad with anguish. She says her daughter
00:13 still suffers from panic attacks.
00:20 Sometimes she jerks up in her sleep and runs to hold me. She is scared of the light bulb.
00:25 The fear seems to be reducing a little, but she gets agitated at any loud sound. If I
00:30 shout at her, she gets scared, and it is because of the experience in the bush, like how they
00:35 were shooting or treating them. She is still scared.
00:43 With Nigeria's economy and poverty levels worsening, abductions have become almost a
00:47 daily occurrence in the country. They were first carried out by jihadist group Boko Haram
00:52 a decade ago. But the tactic has since been adopted by criminal gangs without ideological
00:57 affiliation seeking ransom payments. And authorities seem unable to stop them. On March 7th, 286
01:06 students and school staff were kidnapped by gunmen in Kuriga, a town in Kaduna state.
01:11 Local authorities told Reuters on Wednesday that they had demanded a total ransom of one
01:16 billion naira, or just over $620,000, for their release. On March 11, around 60 people
01:25 were abducted in Buda, in the same state, residents said. These kidnappings are tearing
01:29 families and communities apart who have to pool their savings to pay the ransoms. Parents
01:35 are often forced to sell their most prized possessions, like land, cattle and grain,
01:40 to secure their children's release.
01:42 Precious returned to school after her mother sold her meagre possessions and got help from
01:47 family and church members to pay her ransom. But many other victims of kidnapping drop
01:52 out after being released out of fear they might be abducted again. UNICEF estimates
01:57 that at least 10.5 million children are out of school in Nigeria, the highest number in
02:02 the world. Kidnappings are a major driver of withdrawal of children from schools, according
02:08 to Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International's director in Nigeria.
02:13 Going to school now is now suicidal in many parts of rural northern Nigeria. And many
02:19 teachers are fleeing their posts, their duty posts in local areas and rural areas, because
02:28 if they go back, they are afraid that they might be abducted and their students might
02:35 be abducted.
02:36 In remote rural areas, unfenced schools are an easy target. Sanusi said it was difficult
02:42 to get accurate figures for school kidnappings. But according to Amnesty International, nearly
02:48 750 people have been kidnapped in the first two weeks of March alone.
02:54 Successive Nigerian governments have deployed soldiers and bombed suspect hideouts used
02:59 by armed groups. But that has not stopped the kidnappings. The country's information
03:04 minister said on Wednesday that the government's position is that security forces should secure
03:09 the hostages' release without paying for ransom.
03:12 Since 2022, paying to free hostages is a crime in Nigeria and carries a jail sentence of
03:19 at least 15 years.
03:20 (lion growling)