Girl who escaped Nigeria abduction describes ordeal

JANGEBE: Hidden under a bed, Masauda Umar escaped from the men that kidnapped more than 300 girls early on Friday from a school in Nigeria.

The 20-year-old student at the Government Girls Junior Secondary School in Jangebe town, said the bandits knocked on the door of the dorm, and once inside tied the hands of the person in charge and hit them.

"I was coming out from the door and I met somebody but ran back and hid under my bed" she said while outside her home near her father and grandfather.

"I'm scared of going back to school because of what happened really got me scared," Umar said.

Authorities confirmed that gunmen had abducted 317 girls from the boarding school in northern Nigeria, in Zamfara state.

One resident said the gunmen also attacked a nearby military camp and checkpoint, preventing soldiers from interfering with the mass abduction.

Several large groups of armed men operate in Zamfara state, described by the government as bandits, and are known to kidnap for money and to push for the release of their members from jail.

In December, 344 students were abducted from the Government Science Secondary School Kankara in Katsina State.

They were eventually released.

Nigeria has seen several such attacks and kidnappings over the years, notably the mass abduction in April 2014 by jihadist group Boko Haram of 276 girls from the secondary school in Chibok in Borno state.

More than a hundred of the girls are still missing.

"What is my fear? I don't want the situation be the same thing the Chibok girls," said Zubairu Sanusi, whose two daughters - aged 16 and 14-years-old - are among the hundreds kidnapped.

Sanusi, who is also a chemistry teacher at the school, demanded the government bring back the girls and do more to improve security at schools.

The "government needs to do something stronger," he said.

He is scared his girls will never return, or come back injured, pregnant or suffering.

As a teacher facing the daily violence the most populous African country is suffering is difficult.

"You have nothing to say but to pray to God," Sanusi said.