In Nigeria Negotiations continue to obtain the release of 317 adolescents kidnapped on Friday in a boarding school in the state of Zamfara (northeast of the country), informed sources close to the discussions.

Zamfara government officials have been in contact with the kidnappers since the abduction to negotiate the release of the hostages, students living in a school in Jangeb.

“Talks are taking place with the bandits who are holding the girls and we hope for a quick outcome.”a local official involved in the negotiations told AFP, who requested anonymity.

“This is a delicate situation, which requires a lot of tact and patience, since the lives of hundreds of girls are at stake”added.

  • Nigeria: more than 300 girls kidnapped from a school in Zamfara state
  • Dozens of students are abducted from a boarding school in Nigeria and one death is reported
  • Nigeria: More than 300 kidnapped students released

“The negotiations are progressing. Once the obstacles are overcome, the girls will be released. “, indicated another source.

This was the fourth attack on schools in less than three months in this Nigerian region, where criminal groups have increased large-scale theft of livestock and kidnappings for ransom.

The Zamfara authorities are used to arguing with these criminal groups, with whom they have been negotiating amnesty agreements for more than a year in exchange for laying down their arms.

Specifically, Zamfara state officials negotiated in December the release of 344 children kidnapped from a boarding school in the neighboring state of Katsina.

In each of these releases, the authorities deny having paid any ransom to the kidnappers, but security experts doubt that is the case and fear that this will lead to an increase in kidnappings in these regions mired in extreme poverty and little or nothing. safe.

The belongings of the kidnapped students are photographed in a deserted dormitory at their school in Jangebe, a village in the northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara. (Kola Sulaimon / AFP) (KOLA SULAIMON /)

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said Friday night that he did not “Will give in to blackmail” of the “Bandits”what are you waiting for “The payment of large ransoms”.

This new mass abduction has revived memories of the 2014 Chibok kidnapping, in which the jihadist group Boko Haram took 276 teenage high school students, causing a global commotion.

More than a hundred of them are still missing and no one knows how many are still alive.

However, a distinction must be made between two types of kidnapping: “Bandits” They act for profit and not for ideological motives like the jihadists, although some of the former have forged ties with radical Islamist groups in the northeast of Nigeria.

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