ABUJA, Nigeria — Authorities were searching on Friday for more than 280 students who were abducted from a school in the western town of Kuriga.
Nigerian officials said gangs of armed men on motorbikes abducted school children between the ages of eight and 15 .
It is believed that every family in the town has a child that is among those who were kidnapped.
One teen student who had been shot by one of the armed gang members transported to a hospital where they later died.
Thursday’s mass kidnapping is the worst in nearly 3 years, and shares many similarities with the mass kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian girls in 2014.
At least half of the girls who were abducted by Boko Harem in 2014 are still missing.
On X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said he was confident the victims will be rescued.
“Nothing else is acceptable to me and the waiting family members of these abducted citizens. Justice will be decisively administered,” Tinubu tweeted.
No gangs or criminal organizations have claimed responsibility for Thursday’s kidnappings in Kuriga.
More on the mass kidnapping and rescue efforts in Nigeria.
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