A group of schoolchildren in Nigeria were jolted from their sleep with a loud crash at the school gate.
Half asleep and confused, they dashed out of their dorms, some landing in the hands of gunmen.
Onyeka Chieme, an elementary school student at St. Mary Catholic School in Nigeria’s Papiri community, waited with bated breath as the loud thuds got nearer.
Upon seeing men armed with guns, he recalled jumping through the window with some friends.
The gunmen gave chase on motorbikes, shooting into the air and startling him and the others to a halt.
“They said if we ran, they would shoot us,” Chieme told The Associated Press during a visit to his family in Papiri in the north-central Niger State. They watched in horror as the gunmen set fire to a statue of Mary and a Nigerian flag before carting the children away on motorbikes and in buses.
Chieme is one of the 303 schoolchildren — many of them between 10 and 17 years old — and 12 teachers abducted from the school on Nov. 21 in one of the country’s biggest mass school abductions. The attack came days after 25 students were abducted in similar circumstances in the neighboring Kebbi state.
Fifty of the Niger State students escaped in the hours that followed the attack and more than two weeks after, Chieme was freed on Sunday together with 99 others. However, 153 are still held with the teachers, among them Chieme’s brother.
The Nigerian government did not say how they were released or whether any suspect has been arrested. Arrests are rare and ransom payments common in such cases, and authorities have provided vague information about rescue efforts.
“On the first night we got there, I thought they were going to kill us,” Chieme said from his home as his parents watched. “But their leader said we should not fear, it is just money that they wanted. If they paid the money, they would release everyone to go home.”
Separated and some were blindfolded
Chieme described harrowing experiences during the more than two weeks in the bush, where the abducted students and staff were forced to sleep in the open. They were separated, he said, with the older ones blindfolded and their hands tied.
Every day, they woke up on the stubby grass with food and water from a nearby river. Those who did not keep quiet were often beaten, and guns were never out of sight, he said.
Occasionally, aircraft would fly above them, and the gunmen would instruct them to hide beneath trees to avoid being discovered.
“They don’t want the airplanes to see us,” Chieme said, referring to Nigerian military jets that officials said were searching forests for the children. Analysts say the gangs use captives as shields to avoid being bombarded.
Nigeria fights multiple armed groups operating across the country. They include deadly religious sects, including Boko Haram and its splinter group, Islamic State West Africa Province, as well as amorphous groups popularly called bandits who ride en masse on motorbikes to attack communities and kidnap people for ransom.
After attacks, communities and families pay ransoms to the bandits, sometimes millions of naira (thousands of dollars). No group has claimed responsibility for the Papiri abduction.
On the day of their release, Chieme said the students were asked to form a queue. Some of them, terrified that it meant a punishment, ran to the back of the line. The gunmen counted the first 100 students, took them out of the bush, before transferring them onto military buses.
The other 153 and the teachers were left behind, including his brother, he said. Their fates are not known.
It could not independently verify his account.
Families are increasingly worried about their children’s safety
School abductions have defined the security crises in Nigeria, where armed groups have targeted schools to attract more ransom and attention.
Nearly 1,800 schoolchildren have been abducted in almost a dozen school attacks since 2014, when Boko Haram extremists made global headlines after kidnapping 276 girls from their school in the northeastern Chibok village.
Analysts say the Nigerian government negotiates with armed groups and pays ransom for the release of the children to temper outrage. Officials have not admitted to ransom payments.
“When you do that (pay ransoms), it encourages the abductions to continue,” Aisha Yesufu, an activist and co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls movement. The group is still seeking the release of nearly 100 Chibok girls held since the 2014 attack.
The abductions have added another layer of worry to Nigeria’s underfunded education sector. The country has the world’s highest out-of-school children population. One in every five out-of-school children is in Nigeria, according to UNICEF.
In Papiri and other parts of Nigeria affected by insecurity, families are becoming reluctant to send their children to school.
Mixed feelings of joy and anguish
Chieme’s return has left his family with mixed feelings. The parents are happy he is back, but continue to worry about his brother still in the bush.
“If he dies, I don’t think I can survive it,” said Anthony Chieme, his father.
“It is better my child dies in my room where I see his corpse and his grave than die in the hands of bandits in the bush where you see nothing.”
Precious Njikonye, another parent, said she often visited the school since last month’s attack, hoping to see her son one day. This week, her hope materialized when he was among the 100 freed on Sunday and they were reunited.
“Everyone who has a child … knows how painful it is to not be able to account for where the child is,” she said, overwhelmed with relief. “I never thought I would see him again.”
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