Mass Abduction: Gunmen Kidnap Hundreds of Nigerian School Children

Gunmen kidnapped at least 15 pupils and a woman from a school in Nigeria's Sokoto village, with the oldest student being 20 and the youngest below 13, in a dawn raid, following a recent abduction of about 300 children in another armed raid. Kidnappings at schools in Nigeria were first carried out by Boko Haram, but the tactic has since been adopted by criminal gangs seeking ransom payments, as Nigeria's security forces are stretched fighting an Islamist insurgency in the north-east, leaving vast swathes of land unpoliced and armed gangs to roam freely.