Victims of mid-Feb Nigeria school abduction freed

Kidnappers have freed 42 people, including 27 children, snatched from a school in central Nigeria 10 days ago, officials said yesterday, a day after more than 300 schoolgirls were abducted by gunmen in the northwest. In mid-February, gunmen in military uniforms raided the college, killing one student and taking 42 others -- including 27 schoolboys, three teachers and other relatives of school staff, officials said. Northwest and central Nigeria have seen a surge in attacks by heavily armed criminal gangs locally known as "bandits" who raid villages, killing and abducting residents after looting and torching homes. On Friday, in the Jangebe, a village in Zamfara state, a suspected criminal gang attacked the Government Girls Science Secondary School and kidnapped 317 schoolgirls. Zamfara State Police Command, working with the military, is searching for the abducted girls, officials said. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari vowed not to "succumb to blackmail by bandits."