REVEALED: Women Were Among Bandits Who Abducted Zamfara Schoolgirls
The gunmen were said to have arrived the school around 1am and abducted most of the students, who are between 12 and 16 years old from their dormitories.
Some students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe, Zamfara State, who managed to escape have said that there were women the armed gang who abducted him.
Daily Trust had reported that the school, which is located within the Talata-Mafara Local Government Area of the state, came under siege by bandits on Friday morning.
The gunmen were said to have arrived the school in the wee hours of Friday, abducting students between 12 and 16 years from their dormitories.
Madina Hamisu Kawaye, one of the students who escaped being kidnapped, narrated what transpired.
“One woman in black attire woke me up by banging a gun on my bed and shouting at me. I woke up in fear. I observed that dozens of my colleagues were being sent out of the dormitory.
“Some of them covered their body with their blankets,” a student said.
Kawaye said she sneaked under a double bunk as the armed woman went to wake other students from their sleep.
She shared the space under the bed with two other students.
“They were asking for money and phones. One of the women among them asked for the house captain and the matron.
“I overheard one of the gunmen telling someone on the phone that they had just entered the school and that they had begun gathering the students in large number,” she said.
She said one of the gunmen spoke in Fulfulde, adding that “it was really a terrible moment for us. We could not get out of our hiding point until they vacated the hostels.”
Another survivor who simply identified herself as Zainab said she escaped into a toilet when they were gathered near the school’s mosque, about to be taken to the vehicles.
She said, “I sneaked out of the crowd and ran inside the toilet.
“From where I was hiding inside the toilet, I heard gunshots as their vehicles zoomed off into the forest. We were crying and pleading with them to spare us.”
A parent in Kawaye community in Anka Local Government Area, Malam Sadi Kawaye, said two of his daughters, Mansura and Sakina, were among those kidnapped.
“I got to know about the abduction around 3am and immediately after Subhi prayer, I left for the community where the school was located and came back along with five girls from our community who managed to escape. Nine are with the kidnappers,” he said.