Boko Haram claims responsibility for kidnapping 300 boys from Nigerian school 

Parents gather at the school in Kankara where gunmen abducted students

Credit: REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the abduction of more than 300 students from a school in Nigeria’s northwest region, in a significant expansion of the terrorist group’s reach across the country.

Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the group, said on Tuesday that his fighters were behind the attack during a four-minute audio message.

Armed jihadists on motorcycles stormed a secondary school in the city of Kankara in Nigeria’s northwest Katsina State on Friday.

The assailants kidnapped hundreds of boys and fled into a large forest where they have remained at large.

“We are behind what happened in Katsina,” said Mr Shekau. “What happened in Katsina was done to promote Islam and discourage un-Islamic practices as Western education is not the type of education permitted by Allah and his holy prophet.”

In the past, captive children have been used by the group as sex slaves, suicide bombers and child soldiers.

The attack is a worrying development in Nigeria’s war against terror.

Abubakar Shekau speaks in front of guards in an unknown location in Nigeria

Credit: Reuters/File Photo

Boko Haram, which means ‘Western education is forbidden’, typically operates in the country’s northeast.

However, analysts believe that over the last year Boko Haram cells have sprung up in the northwest and north central regions.

Bulama Bukarti, a Boko Haram specialist at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, told The Telegraph that several hundred fighters have recently claimed allegiance to the terror group in Zamfara State and Niger State.

Both states are to the west of Katsina State where the attack took place. The three states are connected by the large forest into which the kidnappers fled.

Bello Masari, the Katsina state governor, told Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian president, during a briefing on Monday that the jihadists had contacted the government to discuss negotiations.

He said that 17 boys had been rescued but more than 300 are still missing.

Fears are mounting of a return to the failure to bring back 276 female students that were abducted in Nigeria’s northeast town of Chibok by Boko Haram in 2014.

Some of the girls were forced to marry their abductors while others were brainwashed or forced into blowing themselves up in crowded marketplaces.

There are still over 100 girls missing despite a global campaign to rescue them that used the hashtag #bringbackourgirls.

Mr Bukarti believes the abducted boys could be used for ransom or to negotiate the release of Boko Haram fighters in prison.

“Boko Haram’s first inclination would be to use them to get money and fighters. We know that in the case of the Chibok girls they enslaved the girls, but the government paid around $3 million to get some of them back,” he said.

The government said it launched a joint rescue operation on Saturday involving Nigeria’s police, air force and army.

However, if the rescue mission threatens the terrorists then there is a chance the schoolboys will be killed.

In 2012, a Briton and Italian were killed by Boko Haram when UK troops attempted a rescue mission. Mr Bukarti said: “Boko Haram has a record of killing people if the rescue mission makes it more dangerous for them.”