World News – AU – Boko Haram behind Nigerian mass kidnapping

The alleged leader of the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram has taken responsibility for the kidnapping of more than 300 students, as anxious parents ask the government to secure their release.

Students who escaped abduction Friday by jumping over a fence at the Katsina State Secondary School of Government Science and escaping through a forest said the attackers were armed with AK-47 assault rifles and rounded up victims, before they marched off.

Boko Haram, which means « Western education is forbidden » in the Hausa language, has led an uprising in northeastern Nigeria since 2009, but has not yet recognized attacks in the northwest.

Tuesday’s kidnapping allegation, released on tape, could, if applicable, mark increasing influence of jihadist groups in northeastern Nigeria, political analysts say.

It could also signal that jihadists have forged alliances with militant groups in the Sahel, which could further destabilize the impoverished north of Africa’s most populous nation.

The United States « strongly condemned the kidnapping » Tuesday and is investigating Boko Haram’s allegation, a State Department spokesman said.

Katsina state authorities said about 320 boys were missing, and the Nigerian government said it spoke to the kidnappers, who requested a ransom from at least one parent.

« We ask the government to do their best to obtain their release, » said Hajiya Ummi, whose 15-year-old son Mujtaba is among the missing.

« His friends told me he was sick in bed when the bandits struck. He could barely move, but they pulled him out with the other kidnapped students, « she said, her voice breaking with emotion.

Katsina officials ordered all state schools to be closed because they were unaware of the attackers’ motives.

An audio message from a man supposedly Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said: « We stand behind what happened in Katsina. « 

« What happened in Katsina was done to promote Islam and prevent un-Islamic practices, as Western education is not the kind of education Allah and His Holy Prophet allow, » he said.

Regional security experts said Boko Haram may not have been involved in the kidnapping itself, but the kidnappers could have sold the boys to the Islamist group.

Boko Haram, Nigeria, Abubakar Shekau