Nigerian soldiers were on March 11 hunting for armed kidnappers who seized nearly 300 school pupils in Kaduna state last week, a security source said, as distraught parents sought answers on when they would be reunited with their children.
The mass kidnapping last March 7, the first since July 2021, shattered the dusty town of Kuriga, 90 km from Kaduna state capital, with parents waiting for answers from authorities.
Kidnappings at schools in Nigeria were first carried out by jihadist group Boko Haram, who seized more than 200 students from a girls' school in Chibok in Borno state a decade ago. Some of the girls have never been released.
But the tactic has since been adopted by criminal gangs without any ideological affiliation seeking ransom payments, with authorities seemingly powerless to stop them.
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