Nigerian kidnappers demand $620,000 for release of school hostages
GUNMEN who kidnapped 286 students and staff from a school in northern Nigeria last week have demanded a total of 1 billion naira ($620,432) for their release, a spokesman for the families of the hostages and a local councillor told Reuters. The school children, some older students and members of the school staff were abducted on March 7 in the town of Kuriga, in Nigeria's northwestern Kaduna State, in the first mass kidnapping in the country since 2021. Jubril Aminu, a community leader who acts as a spokesman for the families of the hostages, said he had received a call on his…