Shekau last month.... Additional reporting by Ardo Hazzad in Bauchi.... Writing by Libby George

KANO, Nigeria( Reuters)-A boat carrying Nigerian students capsized in Kano state in northern Nigeria, killing at least 29, local officials told Reuters on Wednesday.... The boat on the Watari dam was carrying roughly 40 students from an Islamic school, most of whom were under 18, and capsized around 5: 30 local time Tuesday evening, a local government official said.... " What we know is that the boat was overloaded," Abdullahi said....

BAUCHI, Nigeria( Reuters)-At least 20 people were killed in Nigeria's Sokoto state when gunmen attacked a market and torched cars, as armed gangs continue to wreak havoc in the northwest part of the country, a state official and local member of parliament said on Saturday. Northwestern Nigeria has since last December witnessed a wave of kidnappings of school children and villagers for ransoms by bandits, disrupting everyday life for millions of citizens. Idriss Gobir, special advisor to the Soko

BAUCHI, Nigeria( Reuters)-Nigerian officials cut communication lines in multiple parts of Katsina state as a crackdown on banditry in the northwest of the country spreads.... " It has become imperative to do so as a proactive measure to prevent the bandits from Zamfara from coming into Katsina state so cutting communication is part of the measures," Ahmed said in an address in Hausa aired by several local radio stations.... Gangs of armed men seeking lucrative ransom payments, known locally as

Around 80 had remained in captivity before Sunday's release. Armed bandits seeking ransoms have abducted more than 1, 000 students from schools in northwest Nigeria since December, and Kaduna state schools remain closed due to the threat.... President Muhammadu Buhari in February called on state governments to stop paying bandits, and Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai publicly refuses to pay.... But desperate parents and communities often raise and pay ransoms themselves.($ 1= 411. 2000 naira)( R

By Bosan Yakusak2 Min ReadLAGOS( Reuters)-Armed men killed at least 34 people in two villages in the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna in the early hours of Monday, the state government and two residents said. The Kaduna government said in a statement that 34 people were killed in the village of Madamai.... One resident, speaking by phone, said he counted 44 corpses in the local mortuary from attacks on Madamai an neighbouring Abum village.... Another local resident said around 30 people had d

ABUJA( Reuters)-The Nigerian air force said on Thursday it may have killed and injured civilians while pursuing suspected Islamist insurgents in the northeast state of Yobe, in an incident that residents said left at least six people dead. Nigeria's northeast is the hotbed of two Islamist insurgencies: Boko Haram and Islamic State's West African( ISWAP) branch, which split from the former group in 2016.An air force spokesman said a fighter jet responded to intelligence on suspicious movements of

Reuters could not verify the letter's authenticity.... Calls to the police spokesman for Zamfara and to state government officials were not going through.A source at the Nigerian air force, asked to comment on media reports that military operations against criminal gangs were underway, said:" We are clearing these elements fiercely and decisively.... It's a total operation." Zamfara has been one of the worst-hit states in a wave of mass abductions of pupils from schools across northwestern Nig