LAGOS (Dispatches) - Gunmen killed a police officer and kidnapped at least 80 students and five teachers from a school in the Nigerian state of Kebbi, police, residents and a teacher said.
The incident took place after the armed assailants attacked a secondary school in the remote town of Birnin Yauri in Nigeria’s northwestern state of Kebbi on Thursday, according to police and local residents.
Nafiu Abubakar, a spokesman for the police in Kebbi State, said one officer was killed during an exchange of fire between police and the gunmen, and a student was shot and receiving medical treatment.
“We are still trying to ascertain the number of students kidnapped but five teachers were kidnapped,” Abubakar said, adding that security forces were searching a nearby forest for the abducted students and teachers.
Atiku Aboki, a local resident who went to the school shortly after the attack, said he witnessed a scene of panic and confusion as people searched for their children.
The Thursday attack was the latest in a series of group kidnappings at schools in northwest Nigeria, which the authorities have blamed on armed bandits seeking ransom payments.
More than 800 Nigerian students have been kidnapped from their schools since December. Some have been freed while others remain missing.
On May 30, armed bandits kidnapped an unknown number of students from an Islamic school in central Nigeria, with reports saying between 150-200 boys and girls aged six to eighteen were at the school when the assault happened.
Moreover, 14 of the students who had been abducted from a university in northwestern Nigeria were released after 40 days in captivity last month.