In a frightening episode reminiscent of the 2014 kidnapping of almost 300 schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigeria, Islamist militants swept into the vicinity of a boarding school Monday, apparently aiming to take as many pupils as they could.
This time, however, the prospective victims got away.
Witnesses said that Boko Haram militants drove pickup trucks into Dapchi in Nigerian’s northeastern Yobe state Monday evening, shooting off guns and setting off explosives, according to the BBC. The noise alerted the students, who then fled for safety. The militants looted the empty school instead.
The 2014 mass kidnapping set off a worldwide campaign to urge the Nigerian government to do more to find the girls from Chibok. The campaign famously included an awareness-raising effort on Twitter, with the hashtag #bringbackourgirls.
Although most of the girls have been reunited with their parents, in part because of a controversial prisoner swap with the Islamic State-aligned Boko Haram, about 100 girls are still missing.
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