Dozens of students kidnapped in north west Nigeria in latest school attack

This is Nigeria’s fourth mass school abduction since December.

CAPE TOWN, March 13 (ANA) – Nigerian authorities have confirmed that gunmen have kidnapped 30 students from a forestry college on the outskirts of Kaduna city, north west Nigeria.

This is Nigeria’s fourth mass school abduction since December.

According to a report by news broadcaster Al Jazeera, authorities said armed gunmen abducted the students from the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, Afaka, in the Igabi local government area of Kaduna state on Thursday.

BBC news reported on Friday that according to state authorities, 180 students and staff were rescued by the Nigerian army in the early hours of Friday, but about 30 students remained missing.

About 800 students have been abducted since December in several raids on schools in northern Nigeria.

They have all been released after negotiations with the gunmen.

Earlier in March, advocacy group Centre of Democracy and Development West Africa (CDD) called on Nigerian authorities to implement a holistic plan to ensure that attacks at schools did not recur.

Recently, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said a hostage crisis was a complex situation that required maximum patience to protect the victims from physical harm, or even brutal death, at the hands of their captors.

Buhari’s administration has come under fire in recent months over its handling of the dire security situation in the country, which many observers say is getting worse.

Amnesty International said the attacks on schools and abductions of children were war crimes and those found to be responsible should be brought to justice for these and other human rights abuses.

African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Devereaux Morkel