– HRW urges President
Buhari to bring back the
300 school children
kidnapped in Damasak by
Boko Haram in late 2014
– The Human right group
says the initial calls to
report the kidnapping were
ignored with locals scared
of the government’s
response
– This is as a result of the
govt’s inability to discover
the location of 276
schoolgirls who were taken
from Chibok in April 2014
An unreported kidnap in late
2014 has been allegedly
discovered. This follows an
investigation by the Human
Rights Watch (HRW) that Boko
Haram seized hundreds of
children from Damasak, a
remote town in northeast
Nigeria.
It was learnt that the initial
calls to report the kidnapping
were ignored with locals
scared of the government’s
response.
This follows the inability of the
government to discover the
location of 276 schoolgirls
who were taken from Chibok
in April the same year, which
drew worldwide
condemnation and calls for
action.

An unreported kidnap in late
2014 has been discovered as
an investigation by the HRW
shows how Boko Haram
seized 300 children from
Damasak.
Speaking to AFP on
Wednesday, March 30, a local
government administrator
said some 300 children were
among the 500 girls, boys and
women taken from Damasak
on Monday November 24,
2014.
According to the
administrator, his seven-year-
old child was among those
abducted.
He said on the condition of
anonymity: “We kept quiet on
the kidnap out of fear of
drawing the wrath of the
government, which was
already grappling with the
embarrassment of the kidnap
of the Chibok schoolgirls.
“Every parent was afraid to
speak out.
“Locals who managed to flee
alerted their political
representatives in the
Nigerian Senate and House of
Representatives but they kept
mute and ignored us.
“The government didn’t want
the news out.
“They went to the private
school and Islamic seminaries
and carted away children as
young as five.
“They also went into town and
forcibly seized children from
their mothers, children too
old to be breastfed. My 16
nephews were among the
children kidnapped. They
were aged between five and
16.
“Hundreds fled across the
river that separates Damasak
from Diffa in neighbouring
Niger but many drowned. We
returned to bury over 200
dead bodies in mass graves.
“The insurgents killed more
than 200 in the initial attack,
which happened on market
day.”

The administrator noted that
his decision to speak out
publicly came after Human
Rights Watch highlighted the
case on Tuesday, March 29.
According to HRW’s
investigation, Boko Haram
occupied Zanna Mobarti
Primary School in Damasak in
November 2014 after taking
control of the town. More
than 300 students were inside
and, over the following
months, the militants banned
teaching in English and forced
their captives to learn the
Koran.
When soldiers from
neighbouring Chad and Niger
advanced on Damasak in
March 2014, Boko Haram
militants fled the town, taking
with them the 300
schoolchildren and around
100 more women and
children who were also being
held captive.
HRW’s senior Nigeria
researcher Mausi Segun,
however, said while Boko
Haram’s abductions could not
be justified, President
Muhammadu Buhari’s
government, in power since
May last year, also had to act.
“Three hundred children have
been missing for a year and
yet there has been not a word
from the Nigerian
government,” she said in a
statement.
“The authorities need to wake
up and find out where the
Damasak children and other
captives are and take urgent
steps to free them. ”
The former president
Goodluck Jonathan in March
last year had denied reports
of the Damasak.
According to him, there was
no fresh abduction in
Damasak.
But since the emergence of
Boko Haram insurgency, at
least 17,000 people have lost
their lives in six years. This is
perhaps why the US military
once regarded the Islamic
terrorist group as the most
lethal violent extremist group
in the world.