One million Nigerian children to miss school due to mass kidnappings, UNICEF says

Schools have become More than 37 million Nigerian children are due to start the new school year this month, UNICEF said. An estimated eight million have had to wait for more than a year for in-person learning after schools were closed due to COVID-19 lockdowns. Insecurity also led to school closures in Nigeria. Several northwestern states have tried to curb the spate of abductions by banning the sale of fuel in jerry cans and the transport of firewood in trucks in order to disrupt gangs who travel by motorbike and camp in remote places.In Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, the start of the school term has been pushed back to an unusually late date without explanation, after schools in nearby states were targeted by kidnappers seeking ransoms.Mobile network providers in Zamfara state were directed to shut down communications for two weeks “to enable relevant security agencies to carry out required activities towards addressing the security challenge in the state,” the Nigeria Communications Commission said in a letter. The directive came after at least 73 students were abducted from a state-run high school in Zamfara’s Maradun district. All those students have been freed. Military authorities carried out targeted raids on the hideouts of kidnappers and other criminal gangs in the state, who are known locally as ‘bandits.’