Africans Rising calls for support for released kidnap victims

Africans Rising has called on Nigerian government to offer critical medical and psychosocial support to enable the nearly 300 girls released from captivity of kidnappers to deal with the trauma they must have gone through.

Africans Rising is a global Pan-African solidarity Movement with a membership exceeding 42,000 individuals and over 800 organisational members hailing from more than 150 countries worldwide.

The organisation in a statement on Wednesday, said “it notes the release of nearly 300 girls who were abducted earlier this month. We call on the Nigerian government to offer critical medical and psychosocial support to enable the girls to deal with the trauma they must have gone through.

“The kidnapping that took place on Thursday 7th March is one of the largest school mass abductions since 2021. A day after this raid, an armed gang abducted another 15 boarding school children in northwestern Sokoto in the wee hours on Saturday 9th March. This happened days after over 200 internally displaced persons (IDPs), mostly women and girls, were kidnapped in Ngala in northeastern Borno State. Since 2018, this town has suffered a series of terror attacks and mass abductions.

“We strongly condemn the recent surge in kidnappings and other acts of terror in Nigeria and call on the Federal Government of Nigeria and all the security agencies to hasten the search and safely rescue all the abductees.”

Africans Rising insisted that abductions constitute just one of the security concerns in Nigeria, noting that 16 soldiers were murdered on 14th March in Ughelli South in Delta State, adding that the army on their part went on rampage and razed the whole community. This extrajudicial action of the army must be condemned in no uncertain terms.

It said: “All perpetrators must be pursued, arrested and dealt with according to the law. We further demand justice and accountability for all the victims of kidnappings and ask the President to dismantle these criminal operations across the country and enforce stringent measures to ensure the safety of the students and all Nigerians.”