By Aran Dharmeratnam

It is always tragic news when you hear about violence aimed at schools and children.

From sporadic shootings to planned terror attacks, educational establishments around the world have been targeted. Then, as we have seen in Nigeria, there are cases of mass abductions of schoolchildren.

One of the most recent was the awful incident that took place in Nigeria’s Niger State in November of this year. Gunmen attacked St Mary’s Catholic School and abducted about 303 children, as well as 12 teachers.

This is not the first time this type of mass abduction has taken place in the region. In 2014, an incident that caught the attention of global media outlets was the abduction of 276 schoolgirls by Boko Haram from a secondary school in Chibok.

There have also been other attacks and abductions of schoolchildren within the region. In some cases, these attacks are carried out by criminal gangs.

These gangs are often heavily armed and ready to unleash brutal aggression. They hold children for ransom, aiming to extract significant sums, particularly when mass abductions have taken place.

Some abductees are exposed to sexual assault and brutal physical violence.

In the Chibok abduction, some children managed to escape and more than 100 are believed to have been released, although in many cases the release of abductees took place some time after the incident.

Sadly, many others are still unaccounted for. Quite possibly, more than a thousand other children in separate cases have been taken since then.

Clearly, the government is facing a serious crisis and, as long as it remains unresolved, it will continue to cause immense suffering for far too many families.

Even when these children are released or manage to escape, the ordeal they have been through is likely to leave deep psychological scars that may remain with them for many........

© LBC