MORE than 80 children have been abducted following a wave of militant attacks on schools across Nigeria over the past week, local officials and a rights group said on Sunday.

The attackers targeted a primary school in the conflict-battered state of Borno, in Nigeria’s north-eastern corner, in the Askira Uba and Chibok areas, sometime between Wednesday and Thursday, where militants kidnapped 42 children.

Amnesty International said that the attack took place in the village of Mussa near Sambisa Forest, a stronghold of Boko Haram and its splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province.

Across the country, two secondary schools in the south-western Oyo state were attacked hours apart on Friday, with at least 40 children abducted, according to Amnesty’s Nigeria branch. Such abductions are rare in this particular area.

The rights group warned on Sunday that the threat of abduction is forcing many children out of school, while underage girls are being pulled out of classrooms and forced into marriage by families seeking to protect them from school attacks.

Amnesty also said that the authorities “never fulfill promises to investigate the incidents and bring the perpetrators to justice.”

“Victims and their families continue to be denied access to justice,” it said.