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Nigerian security forces stepped up efforts on Saturday to rescue dozens of students who were abducted from their hostels in northwest Kaduna state in the latest attack on schools, police said. and officials.
Gunmen stormed the Federal College of Forest Mechanization in Mando, on the outskirts of the state capital, Kaduna town, on Thursday evening and took away 39 students while the military rescued 180 afterwards. a fierce battle.
“A combined team of police, army and other security forces is frantically looking for the kidnapped students,” state police spokesman Mohammadu Jalinge told AFP.
“We are painting the surrounding forests and bushes in order to free the hostages. Very soon it will be over for the bandits,” he said.
Jalinge said the gunmen had not made contact with the authorities.
Kaduna College was said to have had some 300 students, most of them 17 years of age or older, at the time of the attack.
State Homeland Security Commissioner Samuel Aruwan also said authorities were driving out the attackers.
“A student rescue operation is underway by security officers from the army, air force, police and DSS (secret police),” Aruwan told AFP.
“Security personnel are working diligently to track the kidnapped students,” he added.
Distraught parents, relatives and supporters have arrived at the school for news.
Heavily armed gangs in northwest and central Nigeria have stepped up their attacks in recent years, kidnapping for ransom, raping and looting.
Gangs have recently turned to schools where they kidnap students or schoolchildren for ransom – Thursday was at least the fourth such attack since December.
Mass kidnappings in the northwest complicate security challenges facing President Muhammadu Buhari’s security forces, who are also battling an Islamist insurgency lasting more than a decade in the northeast.
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