More than 200 children remain abducted in Nigeria amid ‘kidnap epidemic’

Schools in north of country have become prime targets for bandits' with 1,000 students taken this year

More than 200 schoolchildren remain abducted by armed bandit" groups in northern Nigeria, among more than 1,000 students taken this year as schools in northern Nigeria have become prime targets.

A startling absence of security and - according to many communities - a reluctance to meaningfully engage armed threats have rapidly turned much of northern Nigeria into a haven for kidnap gangs and a hell for thousands of families. Many of the victims are schoolchildren, with several mass kidnappings this year, mirroring and eclipsing the kidnap of almost 300 Chibok schoolgirls by Boko Haram in 2014.