Armed gunmen have kidnapped 140 schoolchildren from a boarding school in north-western Nigeria, authorities confirmed on Monday.
According to reports by local media, gunmen overpowered security staff at Bethel Baptist High School in Kaduna State in the early hours of Monday.
The Guardian Nigeria reported on Monday that parents and other locals waited for news of the missing children outside the school, which hosts 185 pupils during the day.
The latest abduction comes just hours after gunmen abducted eight people, including a one-year-old child, from the residential quarters of the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Centre in Zaria, Kaduna State, according to the BBC.
Kaduna State has been plagued by kidnappings in recent months as the country battles an ongoing security crisis.
Since December 2020, more than 1,000 children and students have been kidnapped across Nigeria.
The Daily Post Nigeria reported that the Speaker of Kaduna State House of Assembly, Yusuf Ibrahim Zailani, has condemned the continuous abductions in the state.
“I am greatly worried by the fact that these recent abductions are targeted at key sectors of our society,” Zailani was quoted as saying by Pulse Nigeria.
Local government officials said that troops were stepping up efforts to find the victims.
Since the highly publicised kidnapping of more than 270 schoolgirls from a school in the town of Chibok in Borno State in April 2014, armed bandits continue to terrorise people in the region, demanding ransom.
African News Agency (ANA)