Several hundreds girls are missing after suspected armed bandits raided a school hostel in northwestern Nigeria state of Zamfara, a teacher and parent told AFP, in second mass kidnapping in the troubled region in little over a week.
Earlier on Friday, a spokesman for the state governor said that unspecified number of school students were abducted without providing any details about the number of students taken.
“More than 300 girls are unaccounted for after a headcount of remaining students,” said a teacher at the Government Girls Secondary School Jangebe who asked to remain anonymous.
A parent told AFP he had received a call about the incident.
“I’m on my way to Jangebe. I received a call that the school was invaded by bandits who took away schoolgirls. I have two daughters in the school,” said Sadi Kawaye.
A police spokesman for the state did not immediately respond to calls and messages seeking comment.
“[According to local people] the gunmen arrived shortly midnight and operated for hours in this all-girls school in Zamfar state,” Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris reporting from Minna in Niger state said.
“This is one of the states that is continuously being attacked by these gun-men, abductions for ransom and raiding for villages .. this is practically one of the major things that people in the north of the country are facing on a daily bases,” he added.
This is the second such kidnapping in a little over a week in Nigeria’s north, which has seen a surge in activity by armed groups leading to a widespread and worsening breakdown of security.
Last week, unidentified gunmen killed a student in an overnight attack 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.
Al Jazeera News
