Dozens of students and staff were kidnapped by armed men in northwest Nigeria on Wednesday morning, according to local officials, the latest in a series of high school kidnappings that have affected northern states in the most populous country. from Africa.
Armed men stormed the government’s science college in the Kagara district of Niger state around 2 am and overburdened the school’s security, killing a student before ordering students and staff to leave their hostels and meet , according to authorities. “The situation is very serious … About 27 students, 3 employees and 12 members of their families have been kidnapped,” said Abubakar Sani Bello, governor of the state of Niger. Unfortunately, a student was shot dead. “
A photograph shared by the governor’s security officers showed the body of a student in the back of a truck covered in leaves. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, criticized for reacting slowly to previous kidnappings, dispatched the country’s military chiefs to coordinate a rescue operation, his spokesman said.
Shehu Sani, a former senator who studied in Kagara as a boy, said it was unclear how many people were missing, but that the school had about 1,000 students.