ABJUA, Nigeria — Kidnappers have abducted schoolchildren in northwestern Nigeria’s Zamfara State, a spokesman for the state governor said on Friday, the second such kidnapping in a little over a week. It was not clear how many children had been seized.
Zailani Bappa, a spokesman for Zamfara’s State governor, said he had seen reports of the attack on social media and checked with a police official, who told him that students were abducted from a school in the state. He was unable to provide further details.
A police spokesman for the state did not respond to calls and messages seeking comment.
A surge in armed militancy in the northwest has led to a breakdown of security in the northern part of Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa.
Unidentified gunmen killed a student in an overnight attack last week on a boarding school in the north-central Nigerian state of Niger and kidnapped 42 people, including 27 students. The hostages are yet to be released.
Hundreds of people have been killed in northern Nigeria by criminal gangs carrying out robberies and kidnappings. The country is also struggling to contain Islamist insurgencies in the northeast and communal violence over grazing rights in central states.
President Muhammadu Buhari replaced his longstanding military chiefs this month amid the worsening violence, with the armed forces fighting to reclaim northeastern towns overrun by insurgents.
