Two mass abductions were the latest in a series of group kidnappings by gunmen

Nigerian security forces continued to search forests and set up roadblocks in the north-west of the country on Sunday in an attempt to find hundreds of kidnapped schoolchildren, but observers said combing the woodland expanses could take weeks.

More than 280 children aged between seven and 18 were taken from a school in Kuriga on Thursday in one of the biggest mass-abductions in recent months in Nigeria’s turbulent north-west. A further 15 children were taken in another raid on a school in Sokoto on Saturday.

Hauwa Maltha and Esther Marcus, both now 26, were among 276 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria

Two Nigerian women abducted as schoolgirls by a jihadi militant group nine years ago have been rescued, the west African nation’s military has said. One had a one-year-old baby, while the second gave birth to her second child days after being freed.

Hauwa Maltha and Esther Marcus, both 26, were among 276 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram militants in April 2014 from the government girls’ secondary school in the village of Chibok.

Schools in north of country have become prime targets for ‘bandits’ with 1,000 students taken this year

More than 200 schoolchildren remain abducted by armed “bandit” groups in northern Nigeria, among more than 1,000 students taken this year as schools in northern Nigeria have become prime targets.

A startling absence of security and – according to many communities – a reluctance to meaningfully engage armed threats have rapidly turned much of northern Nigeria into a haven for kidnap gangs and a hell for thousands of families. Many of the victims are schoolchildren, with several mass kidnappings this year, mirroring and eclipsing the kidnap of almost 300 Chibok schoolgirls by Boko Haram in 2014.

Distraught parents have gathered outside a boarding school in north-western Nigeria after gunmen kidnapped 140 children, the latest in a wave of mass abductions targeting schoolchildren and students in the country. About 1,000 students and pupils have been abducted in Nigeria since December, with most eventually released after negotiations with local officials. Monday’s raid at the Bethel Baptist high school was at least the fourth mass school kidnapping in Kaduna state over the period 

• Attackers kidnap 140 pupils from Nigerian boarding school

Gunmen overpowered security staff at Bethel Baptist high school in Kaduna state

Gunmen have kidnapped 140 children from a boarding school in north-western Nigeria, a school official has said, in the latest in a wave of mass abductions targeting schoolchildren and students.

Heavily armed criminal gangs in north-west and central Nigeria often attack villages to loot, steal cattle and abduct people for ransom, but since the start of the year have increasingly targeted schools and colleges.

Analysis: reported death of Boko Haram’s leader will increase the influence of Islamic State affiliates

For more than a decade, Nigerian security services and their international supporters have struggled to end Boko Haram’s brutal reign of terror over north-eastern Nigeria.

But few observers of the conflict are celebrating – even though it appears increasingly likely that Abubakar Shekau, the Islamist extremist movement’s notoriously violent leader, is dead, its strongholds overrun and remaining fighters scattered.

Abubakar Shekau dead or seriously wounded after clashes in forest, Nigerian authorities say

Intelligence officials in Nigeria have claimed the leader of Boko Haram is dead or seriously wounded after trying to kill himself to avoid capture during clashes with a rival extremist faction.

There is no confirmation of the claims, and Nigeria’s intelligence services and military have reported Abubakar Shekau’s death many times before.