Kankara kidnapping

On the evening of 11 December 2020, a gang of armed men on motorcycles attacked the Government Science Secondary School on the outskirts of Kankara, Katsina State, in northern Nigeria. The school housed more than 800 pupils, and over 300 were kidnapped in the raid.

The following day, 12 December, Nigeria's armed forces stated they had located the gang's hideout in a nearby forest and exchanged gunfire with the group. On 13 December, an unidentified Beechcraft Super King Air 350i ISR surveillance aircraft was observed patrolling the eastern Kano region for over ten hours in an apparent search for the missing pupils; the aircraft had taken off from Niamey and had blocked its Mode S tracking signal, though it was still identified through open-source intelligence tracking methods.

On 14 December, Katsina State governor Aminu Bello Masari announced that the kidnappers had made contact with the government and that negotiations for the students' release were underway. On 15 December, an audio recording was released purporting to be from Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, in which the speaker claimed the group was behind the kidnapping, although no proof was offered. A subsequent video bearing the group's emblem purported to show the kidnapped boys in captivity.

Nigeria's information minister, Lai Mohammed, publicly denied that Boko Haram was responsible, attributing the kidnapping instead to armed bandits. Officials in Katsina and Zamfara states later told Reuters that the abduction had been carried out by criminal gangs composed mainly of former Fulani herders seeking revenge amid ongoing tensions between herders and Hausa farming communities in northwest Nigeria. According to these officials, contact with the kidnappers was established through clan networks, a cattle breeders' association, and reformed former gang members. The gang reportedly accused vigilante groups of killing herders and seizing their cattle as a motive for retaliation.

On 17 December 2020, Governor Masari announced that 344 of the abducted students had been freed from a wooded location in neighboring Zamfara State.

In March 2021, BBC News reported that bandit leader Auwalu Daudawa had been identified as the mastermind of the mass kidnapping. Daudawa and six associates had surrendered to government forces, handing over 28 AK-47 rifles and swearing on the Quran to abandon banditry. In an interview with Daily Trust, Daudawa admitted responsibility for the kidnapping. He subsequently received amnesty from the Katsina state government. Daudawa was reported killed in May 2021 after allegedly returning to criminal activity.