KANO: Gunmen who seized 121 students at a high school in northwestern Nigeria in early July have released 28 of them, a school official said on Sunday.

The attackers stormed Bethel Baptist High School in northwestern Kaduna state on July 5, abducting students who were sleeping in their dorms.

The kidnapping was the latest by heavily armed gangs, known locally as bandits, who have long plagued northwest and central Nigeria by looting, stealing cattle and kidnapping, but have lately targeted schools and colleges.

The 28 released students had been reunited with their parents after being released on Saturday, Joseph Hayab, the Bethel Baptist High School official, said.

“We were able to send out church buses to go to where the captors dropped them to pick them up,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2021