At least 37 students remained missing after gunmen from the Islamic State West Africa Province raided a secondary school in Lassa, Borno State, on Monday while pupils were sitting exams. Nigeria's latest school attack left families and local officials trying to reconcile sharply different casualty figures as the search continued.
Lawan Abba Wakilbe, the Borno Commissioner for Education, told reporters in Lassa that 25 female students, 11 male students and one staff member were still being held. He said eight people, including the school's vice principal, had been freed.
Lassa after Monday's raid
The attack killed at least three people, and the military said a soldier and a teacher were among the dead. That same military account said authorities had rescued 10 people and that only one remained missing, a tally that did not match the later local count.
Ijagla Ijabila, the area's local government councillor, shared a list of students in captivity with journalists. The document showed the students' genders and their parents' mobile phone numbers, giving families a record of who was believed to still be held after the raid.
Borno State school abductions
The gap between the military's first count and the later figure is the immediate problem for families tracking the missing. On Tuesday, AFP reported the higher number of students still missing, while Wakilbe's account set out who was said to remain in captivity and who had been freed.
The attack fits a pattern that has recurred across northeast Nigeria. Kidnapping for ransom has become a common tactic for armed groups and non-ideological bandit gangs in the north and centre of the country, and the 2014 kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls from Chibok remains Nigeria's most infamous school abduction.
Nigeria and school kidnappings
Nigeria has been fighting an armed uprising since 2009, concentrated in the northeast, and violence waned after the peak of the conflict a decade ago. Analysts warned of an uptick in attacks since last year, and in May gunmen kidnapped more than 40 pupils from Mussa village in Borno State and armed men rounded up dozens of schoolchildren from three schools in Oyo State.
For families in Lassa, the count that matters now is the one that still leaves 37 students missing. The next step is the effort to account for each child and staff member named by Wakilbe and the councillor, because the difference between the military's first report and the later local count is the part that still needs to be resolved.
