TheCable

Suspected bandits have reportedly attacked a school in Zamfara state, kidnapping some teachers and students in the process.

BBC Hausa is reporting that the bandits struck at the Government Girls Secondary School, Moriki, in Zurü local government area, on Wednesday night, and opened fire immediately.

They were said to have killed one man and abducted two teachers and four nursing students.

A resident was quoted as saying the gunmen were unable to get to where the students were sleeping.

The incident, according to the report, happened while residents were watching the UEFA Champions league match between Liverpool and Barcelona.

Muhammed Shehu, spokesman of Zamfara state police command, told TheCable he could not immediately comment on the attack.

“We are drafting a statement on it,” he told TheCable over the phone.

Zamfara has been under continued attacks by bandits in the past few years.

But the attacks have heightened in 2019 despite efforts by the security agencies to address the situation.

The security agencies had launched ‘Operation PUFF-ADDER’ to curb the activities of bandits in the state, but not much result has been achieved.

Lai Mohammed, minister of information, had said part of why the federal government banned mining in the state was because illegal miners “provide arms for the bandits.”

The Zamfara attack comes five years after 276 girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents from their school in Chibok, Borno state, in 2014.

It also comes more than a year after over 100 schoolgirls were kidnapped in Dapchi, Yobe state.