Gunmen kidnap 300 students in northwest Nigeria. Two days later, some have lost hope of finding them

Parents are in despair as nearly 300 students were abducted in Nigeria, highlighting the country's security crisis.

Rashidat Hamza is in despair. All but one of her six children are among the nearly 300 students abducted from their school in Nigeria’s northwest, riddled with Islamic extremists and armed gangs.

It has been more than two days after her children — ages 7 to 18 — went to school in the remote town of Kuriga in Kaduna state only to be kidnapped by gunmen. She was still in shock on March 9.

Authorities said at least 100 children aged 12 or younger were among the abductees in the state known for violent killings lawlessness and dangerous roads where people get regularly snatched.

Also read: At least 200 people, mostly women and children, abducted by extremists in northeastern Nigeria

“We don’t know what to do, but we believe in God,” Ms. Hamza told The Associated Press during a visit to the town.

The mass kidnapping in Kuriga was the third in northern Nigeria since last week; a group of gunmen abducted 15 children from a school in another northwestern state, Sokoto, before dawn on March 9, and a few days earlier 200 people, mostly women and children displaced by conflict, were kidnapped in northeastern Borno State.

The kidnappings are a stark reminder of the security crisis plaguing Africa’s most populous country.