Cattle Ranchers Kidnapped Schoolboys

On December 11, 2020, hundreds of school boys were missing after an attack on the Government Science Secondary School Kankara in Katsina State, Nigeria. 

The Jihadist militant group Boko Haram had claimed to have been behind the mass kidnapping. According to BBC.com, one of the boys said they had been taken captive by "the gang of Abu Shekau." Abubakar Shekau leads Boko Haram, a group notorious for school kidnappings, including one in Chibok in 2014, when nearly 300 schoolgirls were seized. The name of the group, which is based in northeast Nigeria, loosely translates as "Western education is forbidden.” Even though the group has kidnapped school children in the past, some experts were skeptical because it occurred well outside their normal area of operations. 

The spokesperson for the governor of the Katsina state, told the BBC the boys had been held by bandits and not by Boko Haram. "It wasn't Boko Haram," he said. "The local bandits we know about all along were responsible. These are people we know very well, I met some of their leaders. That is why an umbrella body of cattle breeders' association was used in contacting them. So the negotiation was made through this umbrella body of cattle breeders."

According to Bet.com, the Nigerian government says that no ransom was paid for the boys but negotiations with their kidnappers ensured their release. The kidnappers listed several grievances in three rounds of negotiating that the officials agreed to address. "Among their complaints was how people kill their cattle and how various vigilante units disturb them," said Bello Matawalle, governor of Zamfara state, where the boys were released. Conflicts between farmers and herders are fairly common in rural Nigeria. According to DW.com, Saidu Tudun Wada, a legal expert, said he thinks the laxity in imposing harsh penalties for offenders has contributed to the growing insecurity in northern Nigerian and other southern states where banditry is rampant.