Since December 2020, kidnappers have taken more than 1,000 students amid a rash of abductions across the impoverished northwest. Around 300 of the children have still not returned. President Muhammadu Buhari has told the states not to pay anything to the kidnappers stating that it will encourage more abductions. Security agencies stated that they are targeting the bandits with military action and other methods.
Abubakar Adam’s children are also part of the abducted students. Seven of his eleven children have been snatched by armed men in northwestern Nigeria. In order to pay the ransom, he sold his car and a parcel of land and cleaned out his savings to raise the money. He sent his three million naira ($7,300) into the bush, together with the payments of the other families from his town of Tegina. The kidnappers took the money, seized one of the men delivering it and sent back a new demand for more cash and six motorbikes.
Abubakar Adams is one of many desperate parents. From 2011 to 2020, more than $18 million of ransoms have been paid to kidnappers and violence rose to 28% nationwide in the first half of the year. More and more young people are turning to kidnappings to make money in a country where 33% of the population is unemployed and double-digit inflation occurs.
