DEADLY RAID

80 Students Taken in Latest Nigerian Mass Kidnapping

“They killed one of the (police officers), broke through the gate and went straight to the students’ classes.”

For the third time in three weeks, an armed gang has carried out a mass kidnapping in Nigeria—this time killing a police officer and abducting 80 students and five teachers. The raid in Kebbi brings to 800 the number of students who have been snatched by bandits since December, with some of them still missing. The motive appears to be ransom, distinguishing the crimes from the kidnapping carried out by Boko Haram in Chibok in 2014. Reuters interviewed a survivor of the latest attack, teacher Usman Aliyu, who said: “They killed one of the (police officers), broke through the gate and went straight to the students’ classes.”