Nigeria’s kidnapping crisis: ‘Afraid to speak’

Many parents whose children were abducted from a boarding school in Nigeria 10 days ago are scared – they don’t want to talk to authorities or reporters for fear of reprisal from their kidnappers.

“If they hear you say anything about them, before you know it, they will be coming to get you. They will come to your house and take you into the bush,” one of them told the BBC. For his safety, the BBC is not revealing his identity and calls him Aliyu.

In the early morning of November 21, armed men attacked St. Mary’s Catholic School in the village of Papiri in central Niger. His youngest son was one of 300 students abducted.

Some of the children taken away were as young as five. About 250 people are still reported missing, but state officials say that number is exaggerated.

The incident is part of a recent wave of mass kidnappings in northern and central Nigeria, some of which have been blamed on local criminal gangs known as “bandits” who see kidnapping for ransom as a quick and easy way to make money.

“Our village is remote and close to bandits,” explained Aliyu, whose son remains one of the missing.

“It’s a three-hour drive to where they are hiding. We know where they are, but we can’t go there ourselves, it’s too dangerous.”

He was extremely concerned, especially since during previous kidnappings, vulnerable captives held in forest hideouts had died, either from disease or because ransoms had not been paid.

“I’m in pain, my wife hasn’t eaten for days… We’re not happy at all. We need someone to help us take action.”

The Papiri abduction came days after 25 girls were taken from their school in Maga, 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Kebbi state.

One of the students escaped last week and the rest were rescued by security forces from what authorities described as a “farm settlement.”

Bandits often live in cowsheds deep in the jungle. These gangs are mainly composed of Fulani people, who are a traditional nomadic people.

Details have not yet been released on whether a ransom was paid to free the girl from Maga.

In fact, it is illegal to pay ransom in Nigeria. However, hostages can and have been killed if they are not paid.

Relatives tend to crowdfund or, in the case of mass school abductions, authorities are sometimes suspected of negotiating for their release.

No group has said it was behind two recent school abductions, although the government recently told the BBC it believed jihadists and not bandits were responsible. Locals in Kebbi and Niger states may be curious about more information in this regard.

Yusuf, whose name has been changed to protect his identity and is the legal guardian of some of the Maga girls, believes the abductions could not have happened without informants from the community.

“All these kidnappings are not common in Kebbi. These kidnappings only happen with the connivance of someone in the community because no stranger can come to a place and do something like this without the help of locals,” he told the BBC.

“They need help from someone who knows the terrain very well.”

But there is a surprising change in approach in some areas where villages have been at the mercy of bandits for the past decade and have given up hope of getting help from security forces.

This has led some rural communities, which live near kidnapping gangs and lack effective policing, to come up with their own solutions.

David Nwaugwe, a security analyst at security risk consultancy SBM Intelligence, told the BBC: “In the north-west, communities that have been severely affected by mass kidnappings have made so-called peace deals with these bandits in exchange for the rights to mine landmines.”

Many states in the northwest are rich in untapped mineral deposits, especially gold, which is a lucrative prospect for bandit gangs.

Mr Nwaugwe said the agreements were paying off in some areas.

“We’re seeing what appears to be a decrease in attack rates over time,” he said.

Nigeria’s northernmost state of Katsina is a case in point. It has long been synonymous with insecurity – especially banditry and mass kidnappings. But over the past year, things started to change, in part because of several peace deals between bandit leaders and community leaders.

Representatives from both sides sat on cushions under the shade of a large tree to discuss their respective terms and conditions before eventually reaching an agreement.

Bandit leaders have been willing to negotiate but have been criticized for bringing AK47s and other weapons to peace talks.

The Jibia region was a pioneer in the peace negotiation process, reaching an agreement in March this year.

Ibrahim Sabiu, a community leader and lawyer who represented Jibia during the peace talks, said life had become untenable after more than a decade of insecurity.

“Our homes and sources of livelihood have been destroyed,” he told the BBC in September.

“Schools and hospitals were closed. Hundreds were killed and hundreds were kidnapped for ransom.”

A key provision of the peace agreement is the reopening of schools. Additionally, the community demands assurances that they will not be attacked and that bandits will not enter the community with guns.

As for the bandits in Gibia, they are demanding clean drinking water and safe passage as their livestock move to new pastures.

They also demanded that their women be allowed to buy and trade in local markets.

For both sides, the top priority is the release of the abductees. The BBC does not know how many people have been released in Gibia, but by the end of September, a month after the agreement, 37 villagers in Kurfi, another district in Katsina state, had been freed.

“We must accept the peace offer because there is no end in sight to the violence,” Mr Sabiu said.

“This was a crisis that the police were supposed to be dealing with, but the security agencies stepped in and they couldn’t end it.”

Bandit leader Audu Abdullahi Ofisa, who attended the talks in Gibia, endorsed the move towards peace: “Life is full of ups and downs and we are happy to enter another phase.”

Rural communities stand to benefit from a return to peace, but what is less obvious is why bandits are involved in the peace process – especially when gold mines are not part of the deal.

Traditionally, obtaining ransoms made banditry a profitable activity, but in Kurfi it was the bandit leaders who demanded peace talks.

They lead a relatively nomadic life, which makes access to clean drinking water difficult. It also drives up food prices because they are unable to access markets.

Life becomes expensive and uncomfortable.

“We are all tired of the violence,” Nasiru Bosho, one of the bandit leaders taking part in peace talks in Kurfi, told the BBC.

“Before the unfortunate violence, we all lived in the same community. We agreed to live and die together. No more harassment or kidnapping by either side.”

There is also a view that these communities have been drained and can no longer pay the ransom.

While peace deals in Kurfi and Jibia have produced initial security gains in the north, analysts say they have only changed the insecurity situation.

Some gangs may find it more valuable to look further south.

“The further south you go, the better off people are financially,” Mr Nwagwe said.

“The further south these gangs push, the more likely they are to find places to attack. Parents in these schools are better able to raise enough funds to pay the ransom.

“In many places in the northwest, entire rural communities were vacated. Anyone who could afford it left rural areas and went to major urban centres.”

Some have questioned whether the resurgence of attacks in the past few weeks is related to Donald Trump’s recent threats to militarily intervene in Nigeria.

The US president has criticized the Nigerian government for failing to adequately protect Christians from attacks by Islamist insurgents.

A jihadist insurgency broke out in the country’s northeast in 2009, and 11 years ago Boko Haram militants abducted more than 200 girls from Chibok in one of the first mass abductions.

Government and security analysts have been at pains to point out that both Muslims and Christians have been targeted for mass kidnappings. For example, the BBC has learned that the schoolgirl recently abducted from Magga was Muslim.

Christian Ani of the Institute for Security Studies told the BBC: “The security situation in Nigeria is very complex now. We don’t know how to distinguish between violent extremist groups or bandits. Because they operate in almost the same areas and in irregular ways.”

He doesn’t believe Trump’s comments will lead to a resurgence of high-profile mass abductions of schoolchildren.

“They may have ideological motivations, but they are more profit-driven,” he said.

David Nwaugwe agrees that people can’t make the connection between Trump’s rhetoric and the recent increase in attacks.

“Right now, I just think they’re just going after soft targets like schools because it’s easy for them to make money from it. It’s too early to conclude otherwise,” he said.

In his view, stopping the violence requires a two-pronged approach – a combination of armed confrontation and negotiated amnesty deals.

“It’s kind of like a carrot and stick approach – show them you can use overwhelming military force against them and then try to convince others to surrender,” he said.

“I don’t think the pure use of military force will work here, you need to supplement it with other measures.”

But the prospect of peace with the enemy remains a distant dream for Papiri’s parents, who pray for their children’s safe return.