10 years after Chibok, Nigerian families struggle with the trauma of a school abduction

KADUNA, Nigeria (AP) — His frail body stood in the doorway, exhausted and covered in dirt. For two years, the boy has been among the ghosts of Nigeria, one of at least 1,500 schoolchildren and others captured by armed gangs and held for ransom.

But paying the ransom didn't work for 12-year-old Treasure, the lone prisoner among more than 100 students kidnapped from a school in northwestern Kaduna state in July 2021. Instead, his captors hanged him, and he was forced to flee the woods on his own in November.

Treasure's trials are part of a troubling new development in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, where the mass abduction of 276 Chibok schoolgirls a decade ago marked a new era of terror – with around 100 girls still in captivity. At least 1,500 students have been abducted since the Chibok abductions, as armed groups increasingly find them an effective way to finance other crimes and control villages in the country's mineral-rich but poorly policed ​​northwest region.

The Associated Press spoke with five families whose children were held hostage in recent years and witnessed a pattern of children struggling with trauma and education. Parents are increasingly reluctant to send their children to school in parts of northern Nigeria, worsening an education crisis in the country of more than 200 million where at least 10 million children are out of school – one of the highest rates in the world.

The AP was unable to speak with Treasure, who is receiving treatment after escaping captivity in November. However, his relatives were interviewed at their home in Kaduna state, including his cousin Jennifer, who was also abducted when her boarding school was attacked in March 2021.

“I haven't recovered, my family hasn't recovered (and) Treasure barely talks about it,” said Jennifer, 26, as her mother wept by her side. “I don't think life will ever be the same after all the experiences,” she added.

Unlike the Islamic extremists who orchestrated the kidnappings in Chibok, the deadly criminal gangs terrorizing villages in northwestern Nigeria are mainly former herdsmen who have clashed with farming communities. Armed with weapons smuggled across Nigeria's porous borders, they operate without a centralized leadership structure and carry out attacks based largely on economic motives.

Some experts see the school kidnapping as a sign of the worsening security crisis in Nigeria.

About 2,000 people have been kidnapped for ransom this year, according to Nigerian research firm SBM Intelligence. Armed gangs, however, see kidnapping schoolchildren as “an effective way to attract attention and collect large ransoms,” said the former chairman of the local Christian association in Kaduna, which has often helped free kidnapped schoolchildren, Rev. Like Treasure.

According to a recent survey by the United Nations children's agency in Nigeria, the security breaches that led to the Chibok abduction 10 years ago persist in many schools. More than 6,000 surveyed schools met.

Bola Tinubu, who was elected president in March 2023, promised to end kidnapping during his campaign. Nearly a year into his tenure, “there is a lack of will and urgency and an inability to understand or respond to the gravity of the situation,” said Nnamdi Obasi, senior adviser for Nigeria at the International Crisis Group.

“There is no commitment to focus or commit resources to this emergency,” he added.

Treasure was the youngest of over 100 children arrested in 2021 from Bethel Baptist Secondary School in Chikun District, Kaduna. After taking the ransom and releasing the rest of the children en masse, his captors vowed to capture him, Rev. Hayab said.

That didn't stop his family from clinging to the hope that one day he would return home alive. His grandmother, Mary, remembers the night Peter returned home, nervous and hungry.

“He told us he was hungry and wanted to eat,” he said of Treasure's first words that night after two years and three months in captivity.

“The treasure has passed through hell,” says Rev. Hayab with the Christian community. “We have to work hard to get him out of what he's seen, what he's been through.”

Nigerian lawmakers outlawed the ransom in 2022, but desperate families continue to pay because they know the kidnappers can be brutal, sometimes killing their victims as their relatives delay the payment and take them to designated locations in cash.

And sometimes paying a ransom does not guarantee freedom. Some victims accused the security forces of not doing anything to arrest the kidnappers even after they gave them information about the kidnappers' whereabouts and where they were being held.

Such was the experience of Kazina's brother, Emmanuel Audu, who was detained and chained to a tree for over a week after he went to deliver the ransom demanded for his nephew's release.

Audu and the other hostages were held in Kaduna's notorious Dawin Rugu forest. Once home to wild animals and tourists, the forest reserve is now one of the bandits' enclaves in the vast ungoverned forestland that stretches for thousands of kilometers between the highlands.

“The whole forest was occupied by kidnappers and terrorists,” said Audu, talking about his time in captivity. Her account has been corroborated by several kidnapping victims and experts.

Some of his captors in the forest were children as young as the treasure, a hint of what his nephew might be like, and a sign that a new generation of kidnappers had already emerged.

“They beat us mercilessly. If you lose consciousness, they will whip you until you wake up,” he raised his hand and showed the scars that reminded him of his life in captivity.

No one in Peter's family ever recovered from the abduction experience.

According to Jennifer, almost three years after her captors freed her, she rarely sleeps. His mother, a grocer, finds it difficult to raise capital again for her business after using most of the savings and property she inherited from her late husband to pay.

Therapy was so expensive that the church had to sponsor Treasure while other family members endured and hoped that they would eventually overcome their experiences.

“Sometimes when I think about what happened, I wish I hadn't gone to school,” Jennifer said with a sad laugh. “I feel sorry for the children in the boarding school because it is not safe. They are the main target.”

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Chinedu Asadu, Associated Press