Kidnappers abduct 317 schoolgirls in Nigeria in armed night-time raid [View all]

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: The Guardian

Police have said 317 schoolgirls have been abducted in north-west Nigeria, the third mass kidnapping of students in three months in an escalating wave of rural attacks blamed on groups of armed bandits.

The schoolgirls were abducted at about 1am from the town of Jangebe, Zamfara state, from the Jangebe government girls’ secondary school, police said on Friday.
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A local government official in Zamfara said the gunmen shot sporadically and took the girls away. “Information available to me said they came with vehicles and moved the students, they also moved some on foot,” Sulaiman Tanau Anka, an information commissioner, told Reuters.
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A surge in armed militancy by several armed bandit groups in Africa’s most populous country has caused mounting dismay, amid a breakdown of security, particularly in rural areas. The groups operate from forest hideouts spanning north-western Nigeria into Niger, where they have launched attacks, kidnappings, theft and sexual violence on rural towns and villages.



Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/26/kidnappers-abduct-schoolchildren-in-nigeria