Ahmad 
Gunmen have kidnapped more than 200 students in the northern Nigerian town of Korega, in the largest mass kidnapping from a school since 2021.
Local authorities in Kaduna state confirmed the kidnapping but did not specify how many students were being abducted and residents said at least one person was killed in the attack.
One of the teachers at GSS Korega, Sani Abdullah, said the school staff managed to escape with several students as the gunmen fired in the air.
“We are trying to determine the actual number of abducted children,” Abdullah told local officials, explaining that “in the secondary school of Korega, there are 187 children missing while in primary school 125 children are missing, but 25 of them have returned.”
Kaduna state governor Oba Sani told reporters at the scene: “So far, we don’t know how many children or students have been kidnapped,” stressing that “no child will be abandoned.”
In its “X” post, Amnesty International condemned the abductions in Kaduna, writing: “Schools must be safe places, and no child should choose between their education and their lives,” adding: “The Nigerian authorities must take immediate action to prevent attacks on schools.”
Mass kidnappings for ransoms are a major problem and affect the entire country, particularly in the northwest of the country, where in recent years hundreds of children and students have been kidnapped in operations in northwestern and central Nigeria.