Nigeria takes action to protect schools

LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigeria’s security forces have been ordered to defend all schools in “liberated areas” of the country’s northeast to avoid further mass abductions from schools by Boko Haram extremists, the president’s office announced Wednesday.

Many in Africa’s mostpopulous country have been outraged by the kidnapping of 110 girls in a Feb. 19 attack by Boko Haram on a school in Dapchi town. It has reminded many of the seizure of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok by the extremists in 2014. Gov. Jim Justice to end a walkout by West Virginia teachers, but schools in 28 of the state’s 55 counties planned to stay closed Thursday.

House approval of the pay raise came Wednesday evening by a 98-1 vote. The Senate is expected to consider it Thursday.

Teachers and service personnel in all of West Virginia’s 55 counties walked off the job last Thursday, noting they were among the lowest paid in the country. soldiers were killed in a similar manner Tuesday in the Segou region.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated that attacks targeting U.N. peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Guterres demanded that the perpetrators be apprehended and prosecuted, he said.

The more than 11,000-strong mission in Mali has become the most dangerous in the world for U.N. peacekeepers, which are routinely attacked by Islamic militants.