More than 300 schoolgirls have been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen from a school in north-western Nigeria.
Police say they believe the girls were taken to a forest after being abducted from their boarding school in Jangebe, Zamfara state, on Friday morning.
It is the latest mass kidnapping from schools in recent weeks. Armed gangs often seize schoolchildren for ransom.
President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the latest kidnapping as “inhumane and totally unacceptable”.
“This administration will not succumb to blackmail by bandits who target innocent school students in the expectations of huge ransom payments,” he said in a statement.
“Our primary objective is to get the hostages safe, alive and unharmed.”
Mr Buhari said that although authorities could deploy “massive force against the bandits”, there were fears that the schoolgirls could be used as human shields.
