Let’s talk about the kidnappings.
Children in Nigeria are being abducted from schools — often hundreds of boys and girls at a time.
They’re taken for ransom. Some of them make it home. But many haven’t.
So who’s behind the kidnappings? Why are they still happening? And why have the people in charge failed to stop them?
It’s hard to get an exact number but around 700 people have been abducted in Nigeria so far this year — most of them are schoolchildren.
And kidnappings happen across the country.
In the early 2000s they were pretty common in the Niger Delta. It’s Nigeria’s oil region.
Armed groups and pirates were kidnapping oil workers there — many of them foreigners.
By around 2009 kidnappings were becoming a real problem in the north.
That’s Boko Haram territory. They’re considered a terrorist group and they’re the ones who took the Chibok schoolgirls.
Nearly 300 of them were held captive for years.
Boko Haram’s motive isn’t so much money but ideology. Their name roughly translates as Western education is forbidden.
A global campaign attracted celebrities and awareness but seven years on more than a hundred are still missing.
Violence and mass kidnappings are still happening in those places.
But right now they’re expanding to the northwest and central states.
Since December a school is targeted roughly every three weeks.
They’re taken into the forest. Sometimes they’re beaten or worse.
In this video one captive says the kidnappers want a $1 million ransom.
Another begs the government not to attempt a rescue.
So who are the kidnappers?
Locally they call them bandits, which seems to be an umbrella term for lots of people: criminal gangs, fighters from Boko Haram and young men who see an opportunity.
The bandits tend to hide out in forests where there’s hardly any police. And some of them are heavily armed.
So what’s their motivation? Well, the obvious answer is money.
Families often can’t afford to pay ransoms but local governments have more money.
According to one think tank reports suggest “the Katsina state government paid about $76,000 to recover more than 300 schoolboys” abducted last year.
Sometimes those negotiations even go so far as offering amnesty.
This gang leader kidnapped hundreds of students in Kankara in February.
He was pardoned by the governor after his fighters turned in their guns.
Local officials have also been criticised for the way they’re treating rescued children.
The UN says they don’t get the help they need to deal with their trauma.
There’ve even been times when children who’ve been freed are forced to sit through elaborate media conferences — sometimes before they’re allowed to see their parents.
So, locally there are plenty of problems. But these kidnappings don’t happen in a vacuum.
The Nigerian economy is in terrible shape. Unemployment is high.
Corruption is also common, even in the justice system, which makes it hard to hold people accountable.
And then there’s the security issue.
Armed groups like Boko Haram still operate in the north. And security forces in general are underfunded and overstretched.
President Buhari says he’s “working hard to bring an end to these incidents of kidnapping. And that the military and police will continue to go after kidnappers.”
But there’s a lot of frustration.
The kidnappings are horrific but there’s also the huge impact on education in Nigeria.
Schools are being closed. Parents say they’re too afraid to send their kids back.
All of this in a country with 10 million boys and girls already out of school.
If you’re looking for more reporting and analysis on what’s happening in Nigeria, Al Jazeera has local journalists on the ground covering the very latest.
You’ll find it on our website — aljazeera.com. I’ll see you next week.