The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
– ‘Devastated’ –
Inuwa Mohammed, whose 16-year-old daughter, Falmata, was missing, said he was “devastated by this twist of events” and that his wife fainted on hearing the news and was in hospital.
“I woke up with the strong hope of meeting my daughter and my wife had been making preparations for a warm welcome, only for us to receive this shattering news that all along the story has been a rumour,” he added.
The attack will again raise questions about the government’s grip on security in remote northeast Nigeria, after nearly nine years of fighting and at least 20,000 deaths.
US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Boko Haram’s “choice of targets including schools, markets and places of worship reflect the brutality of terror organizations.”
Residents said fighters dressed in military fatigues and turbans arrived unchallenged, firing weapons and shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”).
Safai Maimagani, a herbal medicine vendor, said the militants headed towards the school on the edge of the sleepy farming community.
When they returned, “I heard shrieks of girls from the lorry,” he said.
Muhammad Kabo, a tea seller, gave a similar account: “They were here for less than an hour. I heard girls wailing in the truck and it was clear that they abducted some girls from the school.”
A school security guard who gave his name as Baa-Koro said the gunmen tried to stop the girls from fleeing and tricked them into believing they had come to rescue them.
“Some of the girls believed them and climbed up into the lorry. Many others just kept running,” he added.
President Muhammadu Buhari was elected in 2015 on a promise to defeat the Islamic State group affiliate and has repeatedly maintained they are now a spent force.
But civilians — especially those displaced by the conflict — remain vulnerable to suicide attacks and hit-and-run raids.
The Dapchi attack also calls into question how far pledges to improve security at schools have been implemented nearly four years after the Chibok abduction.
Since May last year, 107 of the 219 held since 2014 have either escaped or been released as part of a government-brokered deal.
Security analysts suggested government ransom payments to secure the release of the Chibok girls could have given the under-pressure group an incentive for financing.
