Over 300 schoolgirls go missing in Nigeria

Unidentified gunmen have kidnapped more than 300 schoolgirls 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 (February 26) 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.

At least 42 people, including 27 students, who were kidnapped last week in Kagara, in neighbouring Niger state, are yet to be released.

The 2014 kidnap of 276 schoolgirls in the north-eastern town of Chibok by Islamist militants Boko Haram brought global attention to the scourge of raids on schools in Nigeria but the most recent attacks are suspected to be the work of criminal gangs._BBC