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Nigerian students escape abductors 2 weeks after kidnapping

Armed gangs operating mostly in remote parts of northwest Nigeria have carried out violent attacks against villagers, schools and motorists, abducting hundreds for ransom.

Reuters
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Boarding school children return back home from the Government Science Secondary school, in Kankara, in northwestern Katsina State, Nigeria on Dec 16, 2020. Photo: AFP
Boarding school children return back home from the Government Science Secondary school, in Kankara, in northwestern Katsina State, Nigeria on Dec 16, 2020. Photo: AFP

Eight Nigerian secondary school students kidnapped by gunmen in northern Kaduna state two weeks ago escaped from their captors and were found by villagers who alerted security forces on Tuesday, the state's internal security commissioner said.

Armed gangs operating mostly in remote parts of northwest Nigeria have carried out violent attacks against villagers, schools and motorists, abducting hundreds for ransom.

The female students were seized by an armed gang on their way from school along with an unknown number of others, authorities said on April 4.

Samuel Aruwan, the Kaduna commissioner for internal security and home affairs, said the students escaped from a forest between Kaduna and neighbouring Niger state and walked for days before being found by some villagers.

They were taken to a military facility in Kaduna to receive medical attention.