KANO: Security forces have foiled an attempt to kidnap hundreds of schoolboys in northwestern Nigeria, a state official said on Sunday, days after dozens of students were seized in the latest mass abduction. The kidnapping of 39 students on Thursday was the most recent in a string of abductions complicating the security challenges facing President Muhammadu Buhari’s security forces, who are also battling a more than decade-long Islamist insurgency in the northeast.

“Between the late hours of Saturday night and the early hours of today, suspected bandits stormed the Government Science Secondary School, Ikara... in an attempt to kidnap students,” Samuel Aruwan, state home affairs commissioner said of the foiled attack in a statement. “Fortunately, the students utilised the security warning system in place, and were thus able to alert security forces in the area”, he said.

The military managed to rescue 180 students, including eight staff members, after a fierce battle with the gunmen.