Gunmen kidnap dozens of students in Nigeria’s Borno State

No group ​claimed responsibility for the raid which bore the hallmark of the ​Boko Haram group.

Gunmen have ⁠kidnapped dozens of school pupils in Borno State in northeast Nigeria, where Boko Haram fighters have carried out similar attacks, residents ⁠told the Reuters and AFP news agencies.

Armed attackers stormed Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School in the Askira-Uba local government area at about 9 am (08:00 GMT) on Friday, Ubaidallah Hasaan, who lives near the school, told Reuters.

Mohammed Ali Ndume, a senator in northeastern Borno State, told AFP that local officials say 42 children were taken.

Local residents and other officials say the total is between 35 and 48.

A teacher at the school told Reuters that armed attackers arrived in the village on motorcycles. “Despite some students escaping to the bushes, I can tell you many were taken away,” the teacher ‌said.

No group claimed responsibility for the raid, which bore the hallmark of Boko Haram fighters who kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls in the town of Chibok in 2014.

The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), which has carried out a number of attacks in recent weeks, is also active in the area. Their commander, Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, was recently killed in a joint US-Nigerian operation.

Local legislator Midala Usman Balami called the school attack “heartbreaking”, and urged authorities to act swiftly.

Africa’s most populous country is battling a 17-year armed rebellion from groups such as Boko Haram, which have made abductions and ransom demands an important tactic.

Mass kidnapping has become a common way for gangs and armed groups to earn money quickly, especially in rural areas with little government control.

Nigeria’s police said on Saturday that 17 officers were killed last week in an attack on a special training centre in the country’s northeast, according to AFP. A source told the agency the real figure could be higher.

A few weeks ago, gunmen raided an orphanage and kidnapped at least 23 children from an “isolated area” in Lokoja, the capital of Kogi State, according to a statement from the state’s information commissioner.

Borno ⁠and neighbouring states have seen repeated attacks on schools and communities, despite military operations aimed at combatting fighters, raising concerns about ⁠security gaps in rural areas.

Mussa, scene of the latest school kidnapping, is near ⁠Sambisa Forest which is a longstanding stronghold ⁠of rebel fighters who have waged a campaign of violence for more than a decade.

In a separate incident ‌on Friday, gunmen abducted students at Baptist Nursery and Primary School in the southwestern state of Oyo. The state has ordered nearby school closures ‌while police hunt the abductors.

Though violence has waned from the peak of Nigeria’s rebellions and Boko Haram’s uprising in 2009, since last year analysts have warned of a potential increase in attacks, especially in rural areas outside, or barely under, government control.

Gimba Kakanda, a Nigerian writer and public servant, told Al Jazeera that the expansion of territory in which these groups operate “matters because insurgencies are sustained not by ideology alone, but by terrain, supply routes, local economies, and the ability to move men and materiel through spaces where the state is weak or absent”.

“Violence in northern Nigeria is sustained by a combination of doctrinal extremism, chronic poverty, educational exclusion, and a state whose presence is often too limited to command confidence in the communities where armed groups seek recruits,” Kakanda said.