Armed gangs have plagued the northwest in recent years, kidnapping for ransom, looting and destroying communities and murdering civilians. Security forces’ attempts to halt their rampage have met with little success.

Mugira Yusuf, spokesperson for the Zamfara state governor, said 24 students, 10 workers and a security guard were seized by armed men in the early hours of Friday from the Federal University of Gusau.

Kidnappings of students, once a notorious tactic by Islamist militants to intimidate the population, have become a money-spinning industry for armed gangs demanding ransom payments.

(Reporting by Ahmed Kingimi; Writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Alexander Winning)