“I watched helplessly as kidnappers loaded our children on motorbikes and whisked them away,” Burka Buba, one of the parents of the children who were abducted in Borno State on May 15, 2026, told THE WHISTLER.
On that day, suspected militants took about 42 children from Central Primary School and a junior secondary school in Mussa, Askira-Uba, Borno State during class hours. They also took toddlers from the nursery section.
Buba said he knew for certain that his daughter, Alheri, was among those abducted when he saw her shoes along the route the kidnappers had followed to move out of the community.
“Whenever insurgents come to our side, they usually come with motorcycles. We have a mountain close to our houses. So when they come, we all flee and hide at the mountain. Then we started seeing them from afar, loading children onto motorcycles.
“We followed the route they took and picked up some of the shoes that had fallen off, and I saw my daughter’s shoes. That was when I knew that she was one of those kidnapped,” he explained.
Buba expressed worry that, over 20 days after the kidnap of their children, there has been silence not just from the kidnappers but from the government saddled with the responsibility of keeping its citizenry safe.
“There has been no call from the kidnappers to tell us what they want. It is just total silence. We don’t know if our children are alright or not,” he explained.
The only words the parents had heard from the Borno State government was a message to meet him at the Emirate Council when he came on a visit.
“The governor came down to ascertain and sympathise with us on what has happened but instead of coming to our community to see for himself how it happened, he went to the Emirate Council and sent word that we should meet him there. We did not appreciate that and we refused to go,” he narrated.
The parents not only refused to go, but also rejected the N10m the governor had sent through their village head to give them.
“What we want is for our children to be rescued. Even though we are poor, we do not want the money. We want our children back,” he said.
Buba explained that though there are soldiers that patrol the area, whenever the insurgents hit, the security personnel run with them to the mountain to escape.
“This is not the first time the bandits are attacking and the security agents know we have been attacked. We do not have a police post, which is very important. It is only soldiers that are here. The soldiers, we don’t know what is happening. When such bandits come, the soldiers run with us. As we are running to the mountains, they also run with us,” he said.
He lamented that during earlier attacks, the bandits entered their houses freely, and took their cattle with no restriction.
“The bandits entered house to house and took all our cattle and sheep. That was before this. The next time, they met a patrol team. They killed four soldiers and the others ran away. A stray bullet killed a girl. This one, where they took our children, is the third time that they attacked. They usually come on motorbikes,” he lamented.
Another parent, Chinda Buba, told THE WHISTLER that in the recent attack, insurgents on about 17 bikes stormed the area.
Chinda had taken his four-year-old daughter, Saratu, to school around 7:30 to 8am, and was on his way to his farm when he noticed the entrance of the insurgents.
“When I saw them, I didn’t really know what to do. I brought out my phone to make some calls and in confusion, didn’t know what to do because I knew who they were. They started shooting. Before we could run to the village, they had taken the children. They didn’t take up to 20 minutes to do all these,” he narrated.
Just like Buba, Chinda is worried about the absolute silence from the kidnappers who haven’t contacted the parents.
He lamented that most of the children kidnapped were four to five years old, including toddlers, and lamented the fate of their children taken away so young.
“What do they want from us? As I am telling you, most of the children were four to five years. Some are one year six months, some are one year eight months,” he lamented.
Chinda stated that every day without their children, especially with the silence, has rendered them traumatised as they couldn’t even visit their farms again.
“I can’t explain the condition we are in now. Now the farming is in progress. We can’t even go to farm. How do we go to the farm? It is because of the children we work to feed them. Now, we don’t even know the condition they are in. If your child dies, you know for certain what happened to him/her but now, we don’t know… which sin did they commit?,” Chinda lamented.
The Borno kidnap happened the same day as another kidnap in Oyo State where bandits kidnapped 39 students from three schools in Ahoro-Esiele, Oriire, of the state.
While there has been uproar, especially on social media, about the kidnap in Oyo State, there has been little talk about that in Borno State as many seem to have forgotten or did not know about the incident.
Chinda explained that the silence from the kidnappers might have contributed, noting that while there have been pictures and videos released by the kidnappers in Oyo of their victims, there has been none about their children.
“The Oyo State kidnap, at least the kidnappers displayed the pictures of the children. But in our own case, there was nothing. They didn’t call. It is just silence and we feel the government is not doing anything about it,” he lamented.
He pleaded with the government to rescue their children, stating that every day that passes increases their anxiety for the wellbeing of the young ones.
It has been exactly 24 days since the kidnap. During his visitation to the Emir of Uba, the Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum said that the Brigade Commander, Commanding Officer, Divisional Police Officer and other heads of security establishments had already been deployed to strengthen security and facilitate the safe return of the abducted children.
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