Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday declared a “nationwide security emergency” as the country scrambled to respond to a wave of mass kidnappings that have seen hundreds of people, mostly children, captured in a week.
“This is a national emergency, and we are responding by deploying more boots on the ground, especially in security-challenged areas,” Tinubu said in a statement.
Within days, assailants across the country kidnapped two dozen Muslim schoolgirls, 38 worshippers, more than 300 schoolchildren and teachers from a Catholic school, 13 young women and girls walking near a farm, and another 10 women and children.
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Dozens have been rescued and others escaped but 265 children and their teachers seized from a Catholic boarding school in the country’s Niger state on Friday are still missing.
“In view of the emerging security situation, I have decided to declare a nationwide security emergency and order additional recruitment into the Armed Forces,” Tinubu said.
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At the weekend he ordered a redeployment of police VIP bodyguards to core policing duties, and has ordered the hiring of another 50,000 new police recruits.