Foreign News
Hundreds of pupils missing after gunmen storm school in Nigeria
Hundreds of pupils are missing after gunmen attacked a school in northwestern Nigeria in the second mass abduction within a week in the country.
Local government officials in Kaduna state confirmed the kidnappings from Kuriga school on Thursday, but did not provide figures as they were working out how many children had been abducted.
Reporting from the capital, Abuja, on Friday, Al Jazeera’s Fidelis Mbah said school authorities told the state governor that about 25 of the abducted students had been returned to their parents, but 275 remained missing.
Mbah said that about 175 of those still missing are believed to be between the ages of eight to 15.
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu on Friday directed security and intelligence agencies to “immediately rescue the victims and ensure that justice is served against the perpetrators of these abominable acts”, his office said.
Police did not provide figures for the abductees.
“As of this moment we have not been able to know the number of children or students that have been kidnapped,” Kaduna state Governor Uba Sani told reporters in Kuriga on Thursday. “No child will be left behind.”
Idris Maiallura, the local councillor for Kuriga, said he had been to the school and that the gunmen initially took 100 primary school pupils but later freed them while others escaped.
Parents and residents blamed the abductions on a lack of security in the area.
UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, condemned the attack and called on the government to do more to protect students. “Schools are supposed to be sanctuaries of learning and growth, not sites of fear and violence,” UNICEF Nigeria Director Christian Munduate said in a statement.
“This latest abduction, as any previously, is highly condemnable and part of a worrying trend of attacks on educational institutions in Nigeria, particularly in the northwest, where armed groups have intensified their campaign of violence and kidnappings,” Munduate added.
Amnesty International called on the authorities to safely rescue the students and hold the perpetrators to account. “Schools should be places of safety, and no child should have to choose between their education and their life,” the rights group said on X, as it called on the authorities to also “take measures immediately to prevent attacks on schools, to protect children’s lives and their right to education”.
“We don’t know what to do, we are all waiting to see what God can do. They are my only children I have on Earth,” Fatima Usman, whose two children were among those taken, told the Reuters news agency by telephone.
Another parent, Hassan Abdullahi, told Reuters that local vigilantes had tried to repel the gunmen, but had been overpowered. “Seventeen of the students abducted are my children. I feel very sad that the government has neglected us completely in this area,” Abdullahi said.
People gather in an area where gunmen kidnapped students in Chikun, Nigeria, on March 7, 2024 (Aljazeera)
Kidnappings for ransom are common in Africa’s most populous country, where heavily armed criminal gangs have targeted schools and colleges in the past, especially in the northwest, although such attacks have abated recently.
In 2014, the Boko Haram armed group kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in Borno state’s Chibok village.
The last major reported abduction involving pupils in Kaduna was in July 2021, when fighters took more than 150 children in a raid. They were reunited months later with their families after they paid ransoms.
Since coming to office in May, President Bola Tinubu has made reducing insecurity one of his priorities, but the armed forces are embattled on several fronts, including a long-running battle in the northeast of the country.
Al Jazeera’s Mbah said that in recent weeks, Nigeria has seen a spate of attacks and abductions, and the military has stated that they lack the weapons to be able to confront and overpower armed groups.
Chris Kwaja, an associate professor at the Centre for Peace and Security Studies at Modibbo Adama University in northeastern Nigeria, told Al Jazeera on Friday that the frequency of abductions tells an “unfortunate story of the high level of coordination, sophistication and lethality” that defines the criminal organised groups in the country.
There is also a level of complicity within the communities affected that allows kidnappers to know how to undertake such operations, Kwaja said.
The criminal networks can provide incentives to people within communities who do not feel supported by the government and are facing “hunger, starvation, poverty and unemployment”, he added.
(Aljazeera)
Rescuers are rushing to locate dozens of people missing in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing, after a deadly landslide buried homes in the area, according to Chinese authorities.
The landslide took place around 9:10am (01:10 GMT) on Friday in Chongqing’s Pengshui county, killing eight people, leaving 34 unaccounted for and displacing more than 1,100, reported state media.
Footage shared by China’s CCTV broadcaster showed a huge buildup of rocks and dirt covering part of a residential and commercial street at the bottom of a mountain in the region.
Ten people have been rescued from the debris, including two who are seriously injured, reported China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.
Water, electricity and gas supplies were cut off within a one-kilometre (0.6-mile) radius of the landslide to prevent further disruptions. More than 800 rescuers have gone to the site, reported CCTV.
Authorities said they sent more than 8,000 disaster relief items to Chongqing, including tents, folding beds and family emergency kits.
Pengshui county is located in the southeast part of Chongqing, bordering the provinces of Hubei and Guizhou.
The area where the landslide happened is known for “unpredictable” steep terrain, a local official told a news conference, adding that dangerous rocks remain along the sides of the cliff.
The government has allocated 50 million yuan ($7.36m) in natural disaster relief funds to support the rescue and relief operations and to provide assistance to affected residents, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management said.
[Aljazeera]
Almost 5,000 people are known to have died in two earthquakes that devastated Venezuela in June, but the United Nations estimates that as many as 50,000 people may still be missing – with many feared buried under rubble.
The number of confirmed deaths is now higher at 4,930, lawmaker Jorge Rodriguez announced on Thursday
The disaster almost a month ago impacted tens of thousands of others. Nearly 17,000 people are wounded, and 21,120 are living in shelters.
Venezuelan teams have been operating since the earthquake struck, but locals say their response has been slow.
“From the very first moment, from when the earthquake happened, there was an immediate response, but from civilians. Civilians and independent people. The state’s response is only being seen now,” Cinthia Pulido, a Venezuelan displaced by the earthquakes, told Al Jazeera. “We’re watching and waiting for some kind of answer.”
International rescue teams sent in the immediate aftermath of the disaster have left as the focus moves to providing humanitarian relief.
“The little I can get is just for me to survive, support my children, and help my mum,” Louismarez Paez, who has also been displaced, told Al Jazeera.
Her mother, she said, does not receive any assistance other than that which she herself provides.
Venezuela has ‘crucial resources’ it cannot access
Venezuela has faced tight US sanctions since 2015, which experts say is making the government’s job even harder.
“Venezuela has crucial resources that it is not being allowed to access,” Mark Weisbrot, senior economist and co-director at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said.
That includes $11bn blocked by the US and European countries that Venezuela “should legally have”, Weisbrot said.
Earlier this week, a group of 14 Democratic lawmakers in the US sent a letter urging the White House to ease economic sanctions on Venezuela to aid recovery efforts, according to a report from Spanish newspaper El Pais.
The sanctions, they wrote, are “severely hampering urgent relief efforts” and have “severely undermined the country’s response and reconstruction efforts”.
The UN estimates that the recovery efforts in Venezuela could cost the country $37bn.
[Aljazeera]
Argentina face the prospect of a Fifa fine after their players celebrated the World Cup semi-final win against England with a banner in support of their country’s claims to the Falkland Islands.
The defending world champions produced a dramatic late comeback in Atlanta, scoring twice to defeat Thomas Tuchel’s side 2-1 and book a showdown with Spain in Sunday’s final.
After the final whistle, Argentina players celebrated while holding a banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas”, which translates as “The Falklands are Argentine”.
The Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory in the south-west Atlantic Ocean, remain the subject of a sovereignty dispute between Britain and Argentina.
The two nations went to war over the group of islands, situated 300 miles off Argentina’s east coast, from April to June 1982.
The 74-day conflict led to the deaths of 655 Argentine and 255 British servicemen. Three people from the islands also died.
In 2014, Fifa fined the Argentine Football Association 20,000 pounds after its players held up a banner with the same message before a friendly against Slovenia.
World football’s governing body said the gesture had breached rules on political action and team misconduct.
[BBC]
Davis cup Asia/Oceania Group IV 2026 to be held in Colombo from 20th to 25th July
Navy brings fisherman in distress off Pothuvil, ashore
Malinga, Asalanka seal Galle Gallants win in LPL opener
Showers may occur in the Western, Sabaragamuwa and North-western provinces and in Kandy, Nuwara-Eliya, Galle and Matara districts
Dengue outbreak gallops ahead: Infections surpasses 73,455, leaving 50 dead
Evidence recorded in money laundering case against Yoshitha Rajapaksa
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
Sunday Island 27 December – Headlines
#SundayIsland 17th December – Headlines
Sunday Island – 28th March
Sunday Island Headlines – 21 March
Sunday Island – 21st February – Headlines
-
Features6 days agoPrison riots and politics: NPP’s biggest challenge and Sri Lanka’s biggest opportunity
-
Features3 days agoDirty Money
-
Editorial6 days agoMuch ado about crime: Fish or cut bait
-
Features6 days agoMore on Saudi Arabia: ARAMCO and beyond
-
Sports6 days agoThe banker who rescued Sri Lankan cricket
-
News1 day agoMoney laundering case against Yoshitha, fixed for pre-trial conference
-
Midweek Review3 days agoThe sordid tale of theft and tragedy at Finance Ministry
-
Latest News4 days agoOil prices hit 1-month high as US-Iran attacks dim Strait of Hormuz outlook