The gangs are largely driven by financial motives and have no known ideological leanings.
But there are concerns they are being infiltrated by armed Islamists.
The jihadists’ decade-old conflict in the country’s northeast has killed more than 30,000 people and spread into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
The UN refugee agency said Tuesday the violence in Nigeria’s northwest had caused more than 7,000 to flee into neighbouring Niger this year.
Buhari said he was overjoyed that the schoolgirls had been freed without further incident.
“Being held in captivity is an agonizing experience not only for the victims, but also their families and all of us,” he said in a statement.
He called on “the police and the military to go after these kidnappers and bring them to justice.”
Kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country is a national problem.
At least $11 million was paid to kidnappers between January 2016 and March 2020, according to SB Morgen, a Lagos-based geopolitical research consultancy.
Attack on aid agencies
Buhari was first elected president in 2015 on a platform to strengthen security, a vow that followed the Chibok kidnapping.
But jihadist attacks have continued unabated, and bandit raids in the northwest and centre have surged.
Overnight Monday, suspected members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group, which split from Boko Haram in 2016, mounted an assault on the northern town of Dikwa.
“I am outraged to hear the premises of several aid agencies and a hospital were reportedly set ablaze or sustained damage,” the UN’s humanitarian coordinator, Edward Kallon, said.
“This violent attack will affect the support provided to nearly 100,000 people who are desperately in need of humanitarian assistance and protection.”
