How much is the life of a schoolboy worth in northern Nigeria? For the approximately 300 girls and boys kidnapped on March 7, from their school in Kaduna State, by a gang of armed men, a ransom of 1 billion naira (some 600,000 euros) would be demanded, according to testimonies relatives of the families of hostages collected by the Reuters news agency. A jackpot to be handed over to the kidnappers within twenty days from the date of the kidnapping, otherwise “they said they would kill them all,” said Jubril Aminu, a community leader from the village of Kuriga, where the kidnapping took place.
Despite the countdown, Nigerian authorities are loudly asserting that “not a cent” will be paid. Since 2022, a law officially prohibits the payment of ransoms to perpetrators of kidnapping, under penalty of fifteen years of imprisonment. “It’s about discouraging potential kidnappers from acting for money. But ransoms continue to be paid and this measure has done nothing to stem the phenomenon,” says Malik Samuel, a Nigerian researcher affiliated with the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
In fact, the most populous country in Africa has been destabilized for several weeks by an increase in mass kidnappings. At the beginning of March, hundreds of people – between 200 and 400 depending on sources –, mostly women and children, were kidnapped in Borno state, in the north-east of the country. The victims, displaced people residing in camps protected by the army, near the Cameroonian border, had taken the risk of venturing into the forest to collect firewood. They were then captured by jihadists, probably Boko Haram militants, active in this region.
It is precisely in Borno that ten years ago, in April 2014, the jihadist group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of more than 270 high school girls in Chibok, provoking international outrage. Of these young girls, nearly 100 are still missing a decade later, according to Amnesty International.
Criminal gangs
But in the meantime, the epicenter of the kidnappings has moved to the northwest and north-central areas of the country, regions placed under the control of “bandits”, as these hordes of looters are called in Nigeria. subject the inhabitants to a continuous regime of terror. These groups, which can number thousands of members, travel on motorcycles, heavily armed, increasing livestock thefts, attacks and ambushes, and imposing multiple taxes on villagers.
The kidnapping of the Kuriga schoolchildren on March 7 is attributed to these criminal gangs, as are the other kidnappings that have followed since: fifteen students from a Koranic school in Sokoto State on March 9; about 60 adults from Kajuru district of Kaduna State on March 12; then between March 16 and 18, around a hundred people were kidnapped during two separate attacks, in the same Kajuru district.
In a country undermined by a deep economic crisis and whose northern regions, neglected by the federal power, are hit by underemployment, kidnappings have transformed into a real industry. “Kidnapping for ransom has eclipsed other motives for kidnapping, particularly political motives,” said Nigerian consultancy SBM Intelligence in a report released in August 2023.
According to SBM data, which should be handled with caution as many incidents are never reported, more than 3,600 people were kidnapped between July 2022 and June 2023 across Nigeria, and ransom demands amounted to “at least 5 billion” naira. Despite the prohibitions of the law, families do their best to raise the money necessary for the release of their loved ones and negotiate directly with the hostage-takers, counting little on the assistance of the security forces.
President Bola Tinubu put to the test
Women and children prove to be a particularly popular currency of exchange. “They are easier to capture than men and their kidnapping shocks public opinion more and therefore puts more pressure on the authorities in the event of a claim,” summarizes Malik Samuel. Finally, women can also be employed for domestic work or as sex slaves. »
According to the researcher, the jihadists who kidnapped hundreds of people in Borno State were probably looking for cooks for the Ramadan period. Other factors could have played a role in certain hostage takings in recent weeks, the circumstances of which remain unclear: show of force against the army, reprisals against villagers against a backdrop of intercommunity tensions, etc.
“The series of kidnappings does not necessarily have a general coherence, but it reminds us that since Chibok, mass kidnapping has become commonplace in Nigeria,” notes CNRS researcher Vincent Foucher. All this also demonstrates the incapacity of the State to control rural areas. » Despite the operations launched by the government against these “bandits” described as “terrorists” in 2022, including airstrikes targeting their camps, criminal activity has continued to flourish. “The army cannot find them on the ground, in their enclaves, access to which they have undermined,” continues Vincent Foucher.
This wave of mass kidnappings is testing Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who made internal security a “top priority” when he took office in May 2023. If he ordered the security forces to do everything to do to bring back the students of the Kuriga school and the displaced people from the Borno camps, his government has so far failed to develop an effective strategy in the face of the multiple sources of insecurity which undermine the country. Just as he has not yet found the recipe to stabilize the economy and curb galloping inflation.
In this context, the sequence of hostage takings does not seem to be about to end. “The number of mass kidnappings and kidnapped people is already higher in the first quarter of 2024 than for the whole of 2019,” notes Ifeyinwa Antoinette Onyekwelu, analyst at SBM. We can expect the numbers to continue to rise if the government does not do what is necessary. »