UNICEF demands release of 150 Islamiyya students

Two weeks after the abduction of 150 students from the Salihu Tanko Islamiyya School in Tegina, Rafi Local Council of Niger State, The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has expressed deep concern about the fate of the children and called for their immediate and unconditional release.

In a statement yesterday, UNICEF Spokesman, Samuel Kaalu, quoted the Officer in Charge, UNICEF Nigeria, Rushnan Murtaza, as saying: “We are appalled that two weeks after 150 students were abducted from their school, they continue to be held by their abductors.

“Parents are grieving their children’s ‘disappearance’; siblings are missing their brothers and sisters – these children must be immediately and unconditionally released and safely reunited with their families.”

According to UNICEF, it is horrifying that schools and schoolchildren continue to be targets of attack.

It stated: “We can only begin to imagine how frightened they are, and the impact this will have on their mental health and well-being.”

The UN agency stressed that attacks on students and schools were not only reprehensible but a gross violation of the right of children to education.

It called on the Federal Government to take all measures to protect schools in the country, and implement the promises made in the Financing Safe Schools in Nigeria Conference in April this year so that children would not be afraid of going to school, and parents afraid of sending their children to school.

“We can only begin to imagine how frightened they are, and the impact this will have on their mental health and well-being. It is horrifying that schools and schoolchildren continue to be targets of attack and, in this particular incident, even children as young as three years old,” it added.