MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, (Reuters) — The Nigerian military engaged in a firefight Saturday with gunmen who had kidnapped scores of secondary school students in northwestern Katsina state the night before, the country’s president said. President Muhammadu Buhari said in a statement on Saturday that the military had located the kidnappers in a forest and, helped by air support, was exchanging fire with them. One officer was shot and wounded in the fighting with the gang. The gang, armed with AK-47s, stormed the Government Science secondary school in Kankara district about 9:40 p.m. on Friday, the police and residents said. A parent and school employee told Reuters that roughly half the school’s 800 students were missing, but the police and the military were still trying to determine how many had actually been kidnapped.

Source: New York Times December 12, 2020 21:33 UTC