24-Hour Curfew Imposed As Violence Mar Schoolgirls' Reunion Over Jangebe Abductions

 

A 24-hour curfew has been imposed in a northwestern Nigerian town and its market shut after violence marred the reunion of nearly 300 abducted schoolgirls with their parents, local residents said Thursday.

The girls were abducted on Friday from their hostels by gunmen known locally as bandits but were released early Tuesday after the latest mass kidnapping to target a school in Nigeria.

Violence erupted on Wednesday when the girls from Government Secondary School in Jangebe, Zamfara state were to be returned to their parents at a ceremony in the school’s hall.

They had been within the government’s custody in Gusau, the country capital, receiving medical care.

“After the unrest the day prior to this a dust-to-dawn curfew turned into imposed and anyone turned into ordered to live interior,” stated Abubakar Zaki, a resident and father of  of the abducted ladies.

“But this morning after humans had come out the DPO (Divisional Police Officer) went spherical, informing humans the curfew has been prolonged to round-the-clock and requested absolutely everyone to go back domestic,” he instructed AFP.

Abubakar stated the police additionally ordered the closure of the neighborhood marketplace and all stores within the village to save you clean violence.

“We are all inside our homes,” he introduced.

Muhammad Mustapha, every other resident, showed the curfew.

“There is a 24-hour curfew in Jangebe because of the violence by way of mobs yesterday,” he said.

“The market and stores are closed and all of us is interior,” he said.

Mustapha stated the scenario become now calm.

The women have been delivered again to their school on Wednesday to be reunited with their mother and father before violence broke out.

Angered with the aid of officials’ insistence on a formal handover before parents should leave with their youngsters, mobs commenced throwing stones at officers out of doors the college.

One man or woman was shot within the stomach while safety employees opened hearth and changed into carried away by using others within the crowd, an AFP reporter at the scene stated.

Heavily-armed crook gangs in the northwest and crucial Nigeria have stepped up assaults in recent years, kidnapping for ransom, raping and pillaging.