ARMED men broke into a boarding school in north-west Nigeria early on Saturday and seized 15 children as they slept, according to local police.

This comes around 48 hours after nearly 300 students were taken hostage in a separate abduction in the conflict-hit region.

School abductions are common in Nigeria’s north.

In 2014, the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by Islamist extremists in Borno state’s Chibok village shocked the world. 

Armed gangs have since targeted schools for kidnap ransoms, resulting in at least 1,400 abductions.

In the latest attack, gunmen seized the children from their hostel at the Islamic school in the Gidan Bakuso village in Sokoto state in the early hours of Saturday morning, police spokesman Ahmad Rufa’i told reporters.

One woman was also abducted from the village, Mr Rufa’i said, adding that a police tactical squad had been deployed to search for the students.

Saturday’s attack was the third mass kidnapping in northern Nigeria since late last week, when more than 200 people, mostly women and children, were abducted by suspected extremists in Borno state. 

On Thursday, 287 students were also taken hostage from a government primary and secondary school in Kaduna state.

No group claimed responsibility for any of the abductions.