Dozens Missing in Nigeria’s Latest School Kidnapping

Dozens of schoolboys and staff were kidnapped by gunmen in northwest Nigeria early Wednesday, according to local officials, the latest in a string of high-school abductions that have roiled the northern states of Africa’s most populous country.

The gunmen stormed the Government Science college in Kagara district of Niger state around 2 a.m. and overwhelmed the school security, killing one student before ordering students and staff to leave their hostels and gather, according to officials. “The situation is very serious…Some 27 students, 3 staff and 12 members of their family were kidnapped,” said Abubakar Sani Bello, the governor of Niger state. Unfortunately one student was shot dead.”

A photograph shared by the governor’s security officials showed the body of a student on the back of a pickup truck covered in a leaves. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, criticized for reacting slowly to previous abductions, dispatched the country’s military chiefs to coordinate a rescue operation, his spokesman said.

Shehu Sani, a former senator who studied in Kagara as a boy, said it was unclear how many people were missing but that the school was attended by some 1,000 students.