In the evening of 11 December 2020, over 300 pupils were

kidnap Kidnapping or abduction is the unlawful abduction and confinement of a person against their will, and is a crime in many jurisdictions. Kidnapping may be accomplished by use of force or fear, or a victim may be enticed into confinement by frau ...

ped from a boys' secondary

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

on the outskirts of

Kankara Kankara is a Local government area in Katsina State, Nigeria. Its headquarters is located in the town of Kankara. Wards The LGA has 11 political wards # Burdugau # Danmurabu # Wawarkaza # Pauwa # Kankara # Ketare # Kukasheka # Mabai # Yargoje ...

Katsina State Katsina State ( ; 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤳𞤢𞥁𞤭𞤲𞤢) is a state in the northwestern geopolitical zone of Nigeria. It is bordered to the west by Zamfara State, to the east by Kano and Jigawa states, and to the south by Kaduna St ...

, northern

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

. A gang of gunmen on motorcycles attacked the Government Science Secondary School, where more than 800 pupils reside. On 12 December, the

armed forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a ...

said they found the gang's hideout in a forest and exchanged gunfire with them. On 13 December, an unidentified

Beechcraft Super King Air The Beechcraft Super King Air family is part of a line of twin-turboprop aircraft produced by Beechcraft. The Model 200 and Model 300 series were originally marketing, marketed as the "Super King Air" family; the "Super" designation was droppe ...

350i ISR aircraft was seen patrolling the eastern

Kano Kano may refer to: Places *Kano State, a state in Northern Nigeria *Kano (city), a city in Nigeria, and the capital of Kano State ** Kingdom of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between the 10th and 14th centuries ** Sultanate of Kano, a Hausa kingdom betwee ...

region in search of the missing pupils. The Super King Air 350i ISR aircraft took off from

Niamey Niamey () is the capital and largest city of Niger. As the Niamey Urban Community (, CUN), it is a Regions of Niger, first-level division of Niger, surrounded by the Tillabéri Region, in the western part of the country. Niamey lies on the Nige ...

and patrolled the Kano airspace for over 10 hours. The yet to be identified special mission aircraft wa
tracked
using open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools, even though it blocked its

Mode S The aviation transponder interrogation modes are the standard formats of pulsed sequences from an interrogating Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) or similar Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system. The reply format is usually r ...

tracking to conceal its identity. On 14 December, Katsina's governor

Aminu Bello Masari Aminu Bello Masari (born 29 May 1950) is a Nigerian politician who served as governor of Katsina State from 2015 to 2023. He was the Commissioner for works, housing and transport Katsina state from 1991 to 1993. He was the speaker of the Niger ...

said the kidnappers had contacted the government and negotiations were ongoing for the release of the students. An audio message was released on 15 December, purporting to be from

Boko Haram Boko Haram, officially known as Jama'at Ahl al-Sunna li al-Da'wa wa al-Jihad (), is a self-proclaimed jihadist militant group based in northeastern Nigeria and also active in Chad, Niger, northern Cameroon, and Mali. In 2016, the group spli ...

leader

Abubakar Shekau Abubakar Mohammed Shekau (23 March 1973 – 19 May 2021) was a Nigerian militant who was the leader of Boko Haram, an Islamist extremist organization based in northeastern Nigeria, from 2009 to 2021. He served as deputy leader to the group's fo ...

, claiming that the group kidnapped the students. However, no proof was provided by the man in the audio. A video released later with the group's emblem purported to show it with some of the kidnapped boys. Information minister

Lai Mohammed Layiwola "Lai" Mohammed (born 6 December 1951) is a Nigerian lawyer and politician who served as the minister of Information and Culture of Nigeria from November 2015 to May 2023. He is also the former National publicity secretary of the All ...

denied Boko Haram's hand and said the kidnapping was done by

bandits Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, kidnapping, and murder, e ...

. Officials from Katsina and

Zamfara Zamfara (; ; Adlam: ) is a state in northwestern Nigeria. The capital of Zamfara state is Gusau and its current governor is Dauda Lawal. Until 1996, the area was part of Sokoto State. Zamfara is a densely populated area with the Hausa. The ...

states later said that the abductions were carried out by criminal gangs, consisting mostly of former

Fulani The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people are an ethnic group in Sahara, Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. Inhabiting many countries, they live mainly in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa, South Sudan, Darfur, ...

herders who wanted to take revenge against others through the kidnapping. Northwest Nigeria has previously witnessed clashes between mostly Fulani herders and the mostly

Hausa Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also ...

farmers. They told ''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

'' that they established contact with the kidnappers through their clan, a cattle breeders' association and reformed gang members. The gang members accused vigilante groups of killing herders and taking their cows. On 17 December, Masari said that 344 of the victims had been freed from where they were being held in a wood in neighbouring Zamfara State. In March 2021, bandit leader Auwalu Daudawa was named as the mastermind of the mass kidnapping by

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

. Daudawa and six others had surrendered to government forces and handed over 28

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kala ...

rifles, swearing on the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

not to return to banditry. In an interview with Daily Trust, Daudawa admitted that he was responsible for the kidnappings. He later received an amnesty from the Katsina government. Daudawa was reported killed in May 2021 after allegedly returning to crime.

References

2020 crimes in Nigeria 21st century in Katsina State Attacks on schools in Nigeria Child abduction in Nigeria Crime in Katsina State December 2020 crimes in Africa Kidnappings in Nigeria Mass kidnappings in the 2020s Attacks on schools in 2020 {{Nigeria-hist-stub