Radical militia groups are kidnapping children for ransom in Nigeria, but armed security forces there are fighting back.

A shocking issue

Do you remember back in 2014 when hundreds of young students were kidnapped in Nigeria and the outcry it caused? You know, the ones Michelle and Barack Obama saw their kids in?

Sadly, kidnappings are back in the news in Nigeria because armed groups like Boko Haram are using the ransom money to pay for their illicit activities. But government-backed armed groups are working to stop it.

The latest incident occurred on Saturday night when suspected bandits stormed the Government Science Secondary School in Ikara in an attempt to kidnap hundreds of students, explained Samuel Aruwan, the commissioner responsible for security in the state, according to Agence France-Presse.

But instead of facing another abduction — there have been four mass kidnappings in Nigeria since December — the students successfully used the security warning system in place and alerted security forces.

Every student was rescued

When the government-backed armed forces — a group of soldiers, policemen, and vigilantes — arrived, they exchanged fire with the bandits in a “fierce battle,” the wire service reports.

According to Aruwan, the joint military force managed to rescue every single one of the 180 students who were kidnapped, and the school accounted for all 307 students.

Now, the military forces turn their focus to the 39 college students that were kidnapped last week, some of whom made a video allegedly pleading for their rescue.

“As a government, our focus is on getting back our missing students and preventing further episodes of school abductions,” Aruwan added, according to Agence France-Presse.

Fighting back

Sadly, we still live in a violent, unequal world — but it’s certainly uplifting that this horrific attempt to kidnap children was thwarted.

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