Kidnappers demand food for children seized in Nigeria school raid

Kaduna (TIP): Kidnappers who abducted more than 100 students from a boarding school in Nigeria’s Kaduna state warned that the children could starve unless parents supply them with food, parents and the head of the Kaduna Baptist conference said on July 7. The Baptist official said about 125 students are missing, while at least 28 were reunited with their families, after the overnight raid on the Bethel Baptist High School early this week, the 10th mass school kidnapping since December in northwest Nigeria. Parents of those missing told Reuters that the kidnappers promised the children would be safe if parents delivered rice, beans, palm oil, salt and stock cubes. They said abductors told them that a ransom demand would follow. “Search and rescue operations (are) ongoing and we strongly believe that these students will safely return to their parents soon,” Reverend I.A. Jangado said in a statement. (Reuters)