Many children feared abducted from school in northwest Nigeria

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - A large group of children were feared to have been kidnapped from a school in the northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara in the latest of a spree of mass abductions in the region, local residents and a member of staff at the school said on Wednesday.

More than 1,100 pupils have been kidnapped from their schools or colleges across northwest Nigeria since December 2020. Mass kidnappings, a tactic of Islamist insurgents in the northeast in previous years, have more recently been carried out in the northwest by armed gangs seeking ransom.