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Police Say 84 Hostages Rescued From Gunmen in Northern Nigeria

Police Say 84 Hostages Rescued From Gunmen in Northern Nigeria

Nigerian police said 84 people held hostage by gunmen were freed in the northern state of Katsina.

Police responding to a distress call engaged the assailants in a gunfight and they fled, Katsina Police spokesman Gambo Isah said in an emailed statement.

It comes days after more than 300 schoolboys seized from a boarding school in the same state were freed by gunmen who held them for six days. Boko Haram Islamist insurgents claimed responsibility for that attack.

Jihadist groups have been infiltrating the country’s northwest in recent times, even getting involved in conflicts between herders and crop farmers over grazing rights.

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