10 years after Chibok, Nigerian families cope with the trauma of more school kidnappings

By CHINEDU ASADU
Associated Press

KADUNA, Nigeria (AP) — The mass abduction of 276 schoolgirls a decade ago in Nigeria marked a new era of fear in Africa’s most populous country. Since the Chibok abductions in April 2014, at least 1,500 students have been kidnapped, as armed groups increasingly find in them a lucrative way to fund other crimes and control villages in the nation’s mineral-rich but poorly-policed northwestern region. The Associated Press spoke with families whose children have been taken hostage in recent years and witnessed a pattern of trauma and struggle with education among the children. Parents are becoming more reluctant to send their children to school in parts of northern Nigeria, worsening the education crisis in a country where at least 10 million children are out of school.