The governor of Katsina State, Aminu Bello Masari, told DW in an exclusive interview on Friday that "bandits and not Boko Haram kidnapped the schoolboys from the government science school, and they will soon be reunited with their families."
"All 344 schoolboys have been rescued, and no ransom was paid," Masari told DW shortly after security agencies picked up the boys.
Boko Haram had claimed responsibility forlast Friday's abduction of the students from the all-boys Government Science Secondary School in the Katsina State village of Kankara.
Read more: Kidnapped Nigerian schoolboys freed
Freed Nigerian schoolboys after being rescued by security forces in Katsina, Nigeria
'No ransom'
Abubakar Shekau, a factional leader of Boko Haram, had claimed earlier this week in a video message that his group carried out the attack because it believes Western education is un-Islamic.
However, experts also said the attack was likely carried out by local gangs, who have staged increasingly deadly assaults in northwest Nigeria this year and could possibly have been collaborating with Boko Haram.
Read more: 'There's a growing dictatorship of disinformation in Nigeria'
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Former child soldiers join the fight against coronavirus
Coronavirus: A new enemy
A crew of former child soldiers and street kids dig a well for an impoverished suburb in CAR's capital, Bangui. These youngsters are helping to improve hygiene in overcrowded communities as part of a UNICEF project. They have already installed wells for around 25,000 people. The project began before coronavirus took hold, but it's now helping CAR fight the pandemic.
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Former child soldiers join the fight against coronavirus
Drilling for peace
A young worker stands on top of a drill as his teammates manually turn it to create a well. The project is also a form of social rehabilitation, offering these teenagers new skills and paid work as they escape their violent past. It also encourages the community to accept them. The program was set up in 2015, and is now integrated into CAR’s coronavirus response plan.
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Former child soldiers join the fight against coronavirus
A dirty job
A pair of former child soldiers squat down to dredge out the earth by hand. There are more than 3,900 confirmed cases of coronavirus in CAR , although limited testing means that the true number is likely higher. The well-digging taskforce is now racing to install new pipes and boreholes nationwide. Almost 80% of households in CAR lack hand-washing facilities.
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Former child soldiers join the fight against coronavirus
Winning hearts and minds
A crowd of children gather to watch the well diggers. Former child soldiers often face stigma and rejection, which can increase their chances of being recruited again. Interventions that promote acceptance are crucial. As one former child solider explained: "This work could change my life. I finally have some money. And I'm helping these communities and my country."
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Former child soldiers join the fight against coronavirus
A scarred land
Unmarked graves on the outskirts of Bossangoa in north-west CAR hold the remains of civilians who were massacred in the conflict. After decades of instability, war broke out in 2013 when a mainly Muslim rebel coalition known as the Séléka swept across the country and toppled the president. In response, Christian and animist communities mobilised to form 'Anti-Balaka' militias.
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Former child soldiers join the fight against coronavirus
A fraying peace deal
A rebel soldier from the powerful 'FPRC' faction stands guard at a checkpoint in CAR’s lawless north. Rebels control much of the country and, despite the signing of a peace deal last February between the government and 14 armed groups, instability persists. Unrest has been particularly bad in recent months in this region, where rival factions are clashing over control of the mineral-rich area.
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Former child soldiers join the fight against coronavirus
'Children, not soldiers'
A UNICEF roadside sign in Bossangoa advocates against recruiting children in armed conflict. Between 2014 and 2019, more than 14,500 child soldiers were released from CAR's militias. However, an estimated 5,550 children remain trapped in armed groups nationwide, wiht many subject to violence and sexual abuse. Some are combatants, while others serve as cooks, guards or messengers.
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Former child soldiers join the fight against coronavirus
Education against the odds
Children gather inside a makeshift classroom under tarpaulins in a sprawling camp for families displaced by the conflict in rebel-held Kaga Bandoro. More than 1.3 million people have been uprooted from their homes. On average, one in five children do not attend school. But in the worst-affected areas, the number is as high as four out of every five.
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Former child soldiers join the fight against coronavirus
Civilians under siege
A UN peacekeeper heads out on patrol through a displacement camp in the eastern, rebel-held town of Bria. A sign at the entrance warns militants against bringing in weapons. The cramped and unsanitary conditions of camps like these also increase the risk of coronavirus spreading.
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Former child soldiers join the fight against coronavirus
Resilience in the face of war
Civilians sit in the back of a pick-up truck while driving through territory held by the FPRC faction in north-eastern CAR. The UN warns that the country is very poorly prepared to cope with a coronavirus outbreak. The complex, sectarian conflict has ravaged CAR's weak healthcare system and forced medical personnel to flee. Today, half of the population depends on humanitarian support.
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Former child soldiers join the fight against coronavirus
An uphill struggle
A child carrying water passes a peacekeeper near a displacement camp in rebel-held Bria. UNHCR is installing more water points in camps and explainign the importance of handwashing to residents. However, the sheer number of people are overwhelming and senior aid officials have warned that there are too few resources to meet the population's needs.
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Former child soldiers join the fight against coronavirus
Trying to keep the peace
Women walk past a UN armoured vehicle in rebel-held Kaga Bandoro. There are fears that COVID-19 could undermine security and exacerbate tensions between communities by creating price increases and stalling aid supplies. With the presidential election set for December, this is a critical year for CAR. But observers fear hostilities will increase in the run-up to the vote.
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Former child soldiers join the fight against coronavirus
Tackling the violators
Teenage boys play football in the dust in Kaga Bandoro’s displacement camp. While the real numbers are almost certainly far higher, more than 500 grave violations of child rights were reported last year. Efforts are underway to bring warlords to justice but widespread corruption makes it more difficult.
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Former child soldiers join the fight against coronavirus
A glimmer of hope
A team of former child soldiers finish drilling their new well in Bangui. Therapy is out of reach for many here. But projects like this help them deal with feelings of shame and guilt and create a sense of normality. While not a perfect solution by any means, grassroots initiatives like this offer the children of CAR a glimmer of hope.
Author: Jack Losh
Outcry over insecurity
Despite Governor Masari's denial that no ransom was paid for the schoolboys' release, the government had said it was negotiating with the attackers, described initially as bandits, casting doubts on his statement.
Nevertheless, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has welcomed their release, calling it "a big relief to their families, the entire country and the international community," according to a statement from his office.
Amid an outcry against the West African country's government over insecurity in the north, Buhari noted his administration's successful efforts to secure the release of previously abducted students and added that the leadership "is acutely aware of its responsibility to protect the life and property of the Nigerians."
"We have a lot of work to do, especially now that we have reopened the borders," Buhari said, noting that the Northwest region "presents a problem" that the administration "is determined to deal with."
Despite these assurances, Kabiru Adamu, a security analyst, told DW that crimes like kidnapping and weapons proliferation have become rampant, hence the need for all stakeholders to work together and improve on security countrywide.
"Governors of the affected states need to come together, eschew politics and cooperate among themselves in coming up with measures since states are interconnected," Adamu said.
Read more: Nigerian parents urge government to #BringBackOurBoys
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Artists After the Escape: Musician Nneka from Nigeria
Flight, freedom, success
When Nneka came to Hamburg's Altona neighborhood at the end of the '90s, Germany seemed peaceful and full of a freedom that she had never before known. Here she met like-minded individuals and quickly found her way into the local music scene. Her breakthrough came in 2004 when she opened for Sean Paul at a concert in Hamburg's urban Stadtpark.
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Artists After the Escape: Musician Nneka from Nigeria
Where conflict rages
Nneka's childhood was far from easy. The musician was born in Warri, a city of some 500,000 inhabitants located in Delta State, one of the nine federal states in Nigeria that make up the oil-rich area around the mouth of the Niger river. The city's ethnic makeup is predominantly Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo — groups that are often engaged in conflict with one another.
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Artists After the Escape: Musician Nneka from Nigeria
Lots of oil, little money
The different ethnicities fight in part over who controls oil production. According to some statistics, Nigeria has the 10th largest oil reserves in the world. It is consistently Africa's largest oil producer, and some 70 percent of the country's budget comes from the industry. This money does not reach the delta area, however. Instead, environmental pollution threatens humans and animals alike.
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Artists After the Escape: Musician Nneka from Nigeria
Singing against terror
In addition, injustice and corruption in Nigeria has fed the growth of the Islamist terror organization Boko Haram in the country's north. Nneka takes them on in her politically and socially critical song lyrics. In "Pray for You," the faithful Christian lambasts the group for its murders, but sings that she nonetheless prays for these perpetrators, whose acts have led to much mourning (above).
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Artists After the Escape: Musician Nneka from Nigeria
A call to take responsibility
The singer uses her worldwide fame to broadcast her message about how international companies reap profits without involving local populations, and how oil destroys relationships and society. But Nneka also preaches that inhabitants of the African continent must take responsibility for current conditions and stop blaming colonial powers. "Wake up Africa," she sings in her song "Africans."
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Artists After the Escape: Musician Nneka from Nigeria
'It is about loving yourself'
Nneka's lyrics don't just focus on political and social wrong-doings, however. Morality and the importance of family are recurring themes in her tracks as well. She also sings about her feelings of being torn as a German-African and the contradictions between both her cultures. The singer has come to the conclusion that, "It is about loving yourself in the end."
Author: Annabelle Steffes-Halmer (cmb)
Buhari embarrased
The schoolboys' kidnapping piled pressure on the government to deal with militants in the north of the country. It was incredibly embarrassing for Buhari, who comes from Katsina and has repeatedly said that Boko Haram had been "technically defeated."
Armed gangs that rob and kidnap for ransom, widely referred to as "bandits," carry out attacks on communities across the northwest, making it hard for locals to farm, travel or tap rich mineral assets in some states such as gold.
Buhari's administration has been dogged by rising insecurity in the northeastern parts of the country, and rampant attacks on the population by Boko Haram, particularly in Borno state.
Abdulghaniyu Abubakar from a children's rights coalition said the government has the responsibility to protect citizens, lives, and properties.
"Schools are supposed to provide social safety nets, including quality education and bringing up our children. And for any society to achieve this, you must provide adequate security for our schools," Abubakar told DW. This incident is certainly going to affect developments in northern Nigeria."
Calls for tougher laws
Saidu Tudun Wada, a legal expert, said he thinks the laxity in imposing harsh penalties for offenders has contributed to the growing insecurity in northern Nigerian and other southern states where banditry is rampant.
"The security situation in the country is just in reverse gear, unfortunately, because of banditry, insurgence, and kidnappings," Wada told DW.
"There is a need for security agencies to perform their duties more effectively. We have capital punishment in southern Nigeria and life sentence in the north."
"Therefore, the prosecution should do its work, and kidnapping will become a thing of the past," Wada added.
Boko Haram has a history of turning captives into jihadist fighters. If its claims are valid, its involvement in northwestern Nigeria will mark a geographical expansion in its activities.
Read more: Nigeria: President Buhari's war on Boko Haram 'far from over'
