Gunmen believed to belong to a criminal gang have kidnapped hundreds of schoolboys from their hostels along with some teachers in central Nigeria, an official and security source told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday.
The attackers, wearing military uniforms, stormed the Government Science College in “large numbers” in the city of Kagara, Niger, late Tuesday Tuesday, driving the students to a nearby forest, the sources said.
The state governor spokesman told Reuters the facility in question was a high school.
A student was killed in the kidnapping, the official said.
Northwestern and central Nigeria is increasingly the target of criminal gangs known locally as “bandits” who kidnap for ransom, rape and looting across the region.
“Bandits entered GSC Kagara last night and kidnapped hundreds of students and their teachers,” said an official who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
“One of the kidnapped staff members and some students managed to escape. The staff confirmed that a student had been shot during the kidnapping operation,” the official said.
The school has about 1,000 students, but it was not immediately clear how many were taken.
The security source confirmed the details of the attack and said a workforce was underway.
Air support troops followed the bandits for possible rescue, the security source said.
The kidnapping in Niger came two months after hundreds of schoolboys were kidnapped in the northwestern state of Katsina and released days later after negotiations with the government.
The gangs, driven by financial motives, are not ideological, but security officials fear they will be infiltrated by jihadists from northeast Nigeria, where the military is fighting a decade-long Islamist uprising.