Amnesty International Nigeria has decried the prolonged captivity of 42 schoolchildren abducted in Askira Uba Local Government Area of Borno State, 144 days after they were taken.

In a Tuesday statement titled “Nigeria: Borno’s Forgotten Children”, the rights group recalled that the pupils of Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School were abducted by gunmen on May 15, 2026, and have remained in captivity since then.

Amnesty noted that more abductions have occurred across the north since then and warned that Nigeria is failing its children.

“No child should go through what children are going through now in Nigeria. Education should not be a matter of life and death for anyone. Nigeria is failing children once again in a horrifying manner,” the organisation said in the statement posted on Facebook.

Amnesty argued that the future of thousands of schoolchildren in northern Nigeria remains bleak as hundreds of schools in some states have been closed indefinitely due to rising insecurity.

Many children, it said, have abandoned education due to psychological trauma from witnessing violent attacks or living in captivity.

Amnesty called on the Federal Government to intensify efforts to safely rescue all schoolchildren in captivity and to hold suspected perpetrators to account.

Daily Sun recalls that the May 15 incident was one of two major school abductions in Askira Uba LGA this year.

On June 29, gunmen invaded Government Day Secondary School, Lassa, while students were writing their National Examinations Council (NECO) examinations and abducted 36 students comprising 25 girls and 11 boys.

The two incidents brought the total number of schoolchildren abducted from the area to 78.

In July, the Borno State Government said it had received a 15-second proof-of-life video of the Lassa students, with Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Abba Wakilbe, saying government was working to secure their release.

In late September, the Borno State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) called for the rescue of the 78 schoolchildren from Mussa and Lassa who had spent more than 100 days in captivity at the time.

Parents of the children also staged protests and issued ultimatums to the Federal Government to rescue the children, which have proved futile. (Daily Sun)

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