Gunmen in Nigeria on Monday night kidnapped six students and three teachers from a school in southwestern Ekiti state, the state government said on Tuesday, in the country’s first reported abduction involving school children this year.

Armed groups have been abducting villagers, road travelers, and students in return for ransom, as Nigeria grapples with widespread insecurity, which also includes a long-running Islamist insurgency in the northeastern part of the country.

David Vincent completes the story.