Nigerian armed forces battle school children kidnappers in Katsina

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said in a statement on Saturday that military forces are in engaged in a gun battle with a group of armed criminals believed to be responsible for kidnapping over a hundred students on Friday.

Soldiers stand during a parade in Baga village on the outskirts of Maiduguri, in the north-eastern state of Borno May 13, 2013.

The kidnapping took place at the Government Science secondary school in Kankara district at 9:40 pm. Local police, a parent, and a school employee told Reuters News Agency a gang armed with AK-47s stormed the school and kidnapped half of the school's 800 students.

Some of the students managed to break free and run away when police arrived at the scene of the kidnapping and began firing at the attackers.

Search and rescue efforts to retrieve the remaining students were shortly underway and now President Buhari says military personnel have located the gang in a forest in the northern Nigerian province of Katsina, and have begun ground operations, aided by air support, to retrieve the students.

According to police in Kankara engaged in the rescue efforts, one of its officers was wounded in the gunfight.

For many, Friday's kidnapping brings back memories of the 276 Chibok schoolgirls who were kidnapped on April 14, 2014, by the Isis affiliated terror group, Boko Haram-- in which 57 of the girls were able to jump out of the truck they were being transported in and reported the incident.

A still image of the Chibok schoolgirls taken from a video Book Haram released. 2016,

Six years after the kidnapping 107 of the girls, released in 2018 as part of a deal between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram, were reunited with their families, while 112 remain missing.

By: Niza Nondo