School pupils quickly rescued after latest kidnapping by Nigerian bandits

Gunmen in Nigeria abducted more than 80 Islamic school students, but the pupils were quickly rescued by security forces after a fierce gun battle, police announced.

The foiled abduction in Katsina state comes less than two days after the release of 344 school boys who were kidnapped in the same area on 11 December.

The incidents have highlighted the insecurity in northern Nigeria.

Saturday night's attempted kidnapping took place in Dandu me, about 40 miles from Kankara, the town where the earlier kidnapping of schoolboys occurred. The bandits had already abducted four people and stolen a dozen cows when they ran into the schoolchildren, who were on their way home from a cele - bration, Katsina state police spokesman, Gambo Isa, said early yesterday morning.

Police and a local community self-defence group rescued the children from the bandits after a gunfight, he said.

"The teams succeeded in dislodging the bandits and rescued all the 84 kidnapped victims and recovered all the 12 rustled cows," said Mr Isa in a statement.

"Search parties are still combing the area with a view of arresting the injured bandit sand/ or the recovery of their dead bodies," Mr Isa said.

Dandume, an area bordering the northern part of Kaduna state, is one of the region's hotspots for banditry and kidnapping, according to residents.

"Dandume is a no-go-area for many of us because of the high level of crimes and insecurity being perpetrated by armed bandits," said Saidu Lawal, an official of a local civic group in Katsina.

"Despite government efforts to op en up the area by constructing roads leading from the metropolitan locations to the hinterlands of Dandume ... the banditry still persists," said Mr Lawal.

"On many occasions, the bandits block the Dandume-sabuwa highways to attack travellers.Itw as based on that reason that many people have abandoned the new route," Mr Lawal added.

Armed bandits, also known for kidnappings for ransom, have killed more than 1,100 people since the beginning of the year in the region, according to Amnesty International.

The recent abduction of the school boys was a chilling reminder of Boko Haram' s previous attacks on schools.

In February 2014, a total of 59 boys were killed when the jihadists attacked the Federal Government College Buni Yadi in Yobe state.

Boko Haram then kidnapped more than 270 schoolgirls in April 2014 from a government boarding school in Chibok in north-eastern Borno state.

About 100 of those girls are still missing.

In 2018, Boko Haram brought back nearly all of the 110 girls they had kidnapped from a boarding school in Dapchi and warned: "Don't ever put your daughters in school again."

After the schoolboys’ kidnapping a spokesman for Governor Aminu Bello Masari, Abdul Labaran, told the BBC the boys had been held by bandits.

"It wasn't B oko Haram," he said ." The local band its we know about all along were responsible.

“These are people we know very well."