Ahmad 
Gunmen attacked a village in Nigeria’s northern Kaduna state and kidnapped 61 people, local residents said.
The attack took place at dawn on Wednesday, several days after about 300 students disappeared in separate incidents in the northwest of the country.
Known locally as “bandits”, armed groups have been wreaking chaos and fear in the area for years, targeting residents, motorists, and school students for ransom.
Residents of the area confirmed that the gunmen attacked the village of Buda in the middle of the night and fired sporadically, in a criminal operation that resulted in the kidnapping of 61 people.
The attacks come two days after at least 15 students were kidnapped from an Islamic school in the northwestern state of Sokoto.
Two days earlier, 280 students were kidnapped from their school in Kaduna state, the largest mass kidnapping from a school in the country since 2021.
Nigerian President Paula Ahmed Tinobu has directed security forces to find students kidnapped by gunmen in an attack on a school in the northwest.
Northern Nigeria is witnessing an upsurge in kidnappings, with abductees often released after paying ransom or being killed by their captors.”
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