Nigeria’s booming kidnap-for-ransom enterprise threatens security

Since December 2020, a total of 769 students have been taken in at least five school kidnappings in northern Nigeria.

Lagos, Nigeria – It was early in the morning when Aliyu Kagada received the distressing news. An armed gang, known locally as bandits, had just stormed a dormitory at the Government Science College in Kagara, a town in Nigeria’s Niger state, kidnapping his 18-year-old son, Nurudeen. Twenty-six other students, as well as three staff members and 12 of their relatives, were also snatched in the raid, while one boy was killed.