At least 287 school pupils have been abducted in Nigeria after gunmen attacked as classes were about to start, their headteacher said.
It is the second mass abduction in the West African nation in less than a week – more than 200 people were taken by extremists in north-eastern Nigeria days before.
Locals told reporters that gunmen surrounded the school in Kuriga town around 8am on Thursday.
“We will ensure that every child will come back,” Uba Sani, governor of Kaduna state, told villagers. “We are working with the security agencies.”
No group claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attack, although blame fell on armed groups that mostly constitute herders who have been accused of carrying out violent attacks and kidnappings for ransom following decades-long pastoral conflict with host communities.
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Observers say both attacks are a reminder of Nigeria’s worsening security crisis which resulted in the deaths of several hundred people in 2023, according to analysis by the Associated Press.
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Bola Tinubu was elected president of Nigeria last year after promising to end the violence.
But there has been “no tangible improvement in the security situation yet” under Tinubu, said Oluwole Ojewale, West and Central Africa researcher with the Africa-focused Institute for Security Studies.
Concerns over abductions of schoolchildren in Nigeria arose in 2014 when Islamic extremists kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls in Borno state’s Chibok village.
In recent years, the abductions have been concentrated in northwestern and central regions, where dozens of armed groups often target villagers and travellers for huge ransoms.
