Nigeria's president has ordered security forces not to pay ransom for the release of more than 280 schoolboys kidnapped by gunmen last week. According to relatives of the victims, the kidnappers demanded a large payment for the return of the students kidnapped on March 7 from their school in the state of Kaduna.
A law was introduced in 2022 that prohibits handing over money to kidnappers, but in recent years hundreds of schoolchildren and students have been kidnapped en masse. Criminal gangs often carry out mass kidnappings in northwest Nigeria, targeting schools, villages and highways.