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Shoes of kidnapped children in Damishi: More than a thousand students have been kidnapped in Nigeria in the last eight months alone
Photo: STRINGER / REUTERS
In northwestern Nigeria, 28 students kidnapped by armed attackers have been released.
At least 80 other children are still in the hands of the kidnappers, the police said on Sunday.
The released children were found on Saturday evening in the village of Sabon Gaya, said the police spokesman for the state of Kaduna.
According to earlier information from the state government, heavily armed men attacked the Bethel Baptist High School in Damishi village on July 5 and kidnapped the children from their dormitories.
The president of the Nigerian Baptist Community, Israel Akanji, told local journalists that the kidnappers had dropped the children in the village.
The church did not pay a ransom.
For years, attacks by criminal gangs have been increasing in the north and center of Nigeria.
The groups that the authorities call "bandits" kidnap school children and students in order to extort ransom and are also responsible for looting and cattle theft.
The attack on Bethel Baptist High School was the fourth of its kind in Kaduna since December.
In total, more than a thousand school and university students have been kidnapped in Nigeria in the past eight months.
Some of them are still in the hands of their kidnappers.
There were also several other attacks on civilians.
The gangs that organize themselves in the huge rugu forest act primarily for financial reasons.
However, there are growing concerns that they may cooperate with jihadists.
They have been fighting for an Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria for years.
Around 40,000 people have been killed and more than two million more displaced in the conflict since 2009.
ime / dpa / AFP
