10 schoolchildren kidnapped in Nigeria's Kaduna State

Kaduna,
Ten students have been kidnapped in northwest Nigeria's Kaduna State where criminal gangs have previously carried out several mass abductions of children, a government official said Tuesday.

The victims who are students at the Awon Government Secondary School in the central Kachia district were seized on Monday in unclear circumstances, said Samuel Aruwan, Kaduna's internal security and home affairs commissioner.

This was the first known mass abduction of students after a lull and since a cash swap policy that was in part introduced by the government to end ransom payments to kidnappers.

"The Kaduna State Government has received preliminary reports from security agencies on the kidnapping of about 10 students in Kachia," Aruwan said.

It was not yet clear whether the students were abducted from the school premises or while travelling to the school, which only runs daytime classes, he said.

"The exact location of the incident is yet to be ascertained but detailed reports being awaited will clarify whether the incident occurred within the school premises or elsewhere."

Kaduna is one of several states in northwest and central Nigeria terrorized by bandits who raid villages, kill or kidnap residents and burn homes after looting them.

The gangs launch their attacks from camps in a vast forest straddling Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara and Niger states.

Hostages are usually released after ransom payments by families and those who fail to find cash can be killed and their bodies dumped in the forest.

Hundreds of students were kidnapped in mass school abductions in the region, including Kaduna, in the last two years.

Almost all the students who spent weeks and months in captivity were released after payments.

There has been concern among officials and analysts of the growing alliance between bandits, who are motivated by financial gains, and jihadists waging a 14-year old armed insurgency in the northeast to establish an Islamic caliphate.

Last year Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai warned that Ansaru, a group linked to Al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram jihadists were setting up camps in Birnin Gwari district of the state.