Heavily Armed men kidnap school Girls in Nigeria

Armed men kidnap schoolgirls in Nigeria

Armed men kidnap More than 100 students of secondary school in Chibok in Borno state abducted, a day after a deadly bombing in Abuja.

Heavily armed men have kidnapped more than 100 girls from a secondary school in northeast Nigeria's Borno state and torched the surrounding town, a day after a deadly bombing in the African state's capital.

No one claimed responsibility for Tuesday's kidnapping, but fingers were pointed at fighters of the armed group Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden".

"Many girls were abducted by the rampaging gunmen who stormed the school in a convoy of vehicles," Emmanuel Sam, an education official in the town of Chibok, where the attack took place, told AFP news agency.

He spoke from Borno's capital Maiduguri where he said he fled after the attack at the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok.

The attackers came "in trucks and on motorcycles and headed to the school", where they overpowered soldiers deployed to guard it, a witness who requested anonymity said.

He said soldiers had been deployed to provide extra security in advance of yearly exams, but the attackers  "subdued the soldiers and took the girls away".

He was not able to provide an estimate of the number of girls abducted.

Boko Haram has repeatedly attacked schools in the northeast during an insurgency that has killed thousands since 2009.

In an attack earlier this year in Borno, witnesses said Boko Haram fighters surrounded a girls' school, forced the students to leave and ordered them to immediately return to their villages.

At least 71 people were killed in Abuja's outskirts on Monday, when a bomb exploded at a packed bus station, marking the deadliest attack in the federal capital.

Boko Haram wants to establish a state ruling by Islamic law in the northeast. Nigeria's Muslims mainly live in the north while Christians mostly in the south.

The Abuja explosion raised concerns about the country's ability to ward off frequent attacks during the World Economic Forum on Africa scheduled next month in the capital.

Following the blast, Nigeria has pledged to deploy more than 6,000 police and soldiers to protect African heads of state and business leaders attending the May 7-9 event, based on the flagship gatherings in Davos, Switzerland.

Africa's top oil producer wants to highlight its newly acquired status as the largest economy on the continent.

Monday's attack also added pressure on President Goodluck Jonathan in the run-up to February's elections.