Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has dispatched security chiefs to coordinate rescue operations for students abducted by unidentified gunmen in the northern state of Niger on Wednesday. – 280 students and staff are currently unaccounted for after gunmen believed to belong to a criminal gang wearing military uniforms stormed the Government Science College in “huge numbers” in the town of Kagara in Niger state late on Tuesday, herding the students into a nearby forest. It is unclear how many are still in the possession of the gunmen. One student died during the kidnapping, an official said. Northwest and central Nigeria have increasingly been targeted by criminal gangs known locally as “bandits” who kidnap for ransom, rape, and pillage across the region.