Major manhunt after latest abduction

Gunmen who kidnapped six female students and two staff members from their hostels at a remote school in northern Nigeria have made a ransom demand. Armed assailants gained entry to Engravers College, a mixed boarding school in a remote area just south of the city of Kaduna, early on Thursday. ‘They have made a demand for money and that is being negotiated,’ state Governor Mallam Nasir El-Rufai said in Abuja. A report on the News24 site notes that abductions for ransom are common in Nigeria and the school is located in an area that has become notorious for armed banditry. El-Rufai said the police, army and air force are searching for the kidnappers and their victims.