Gunmen in Nigeria abducted nine students on their way home from an Islamic school in the country’s northwest, two days after a mass school abduction took place in a neighboring state, police said Thursday.

The armed bandits kidnapped boys earlier this week in Katsina state, informed police spokesman Mr. Isah Gambo.

The criminals whisked them away by the bandits on motorcycles into a nearby forested area, according to Hassan Muawuya, a resident.

The new abduction in Katsina raises fresh concerns over the ability of Nigeria’s security agencies to provide adequate security in Africa’s most populous nation particularly in its northern states, where such armed groups often attack remote communities.

The kidnapping in Katsina took place the same day that the state Gov. Aminu Bello Masari urged residents to buy guns to defend themselves from criminal attacks in a state and country where the private use of guns is rare.

Katsina, the home state of Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, is only one of six states where school abductions have occurred in the country since December 2020 when Nigeria started to witness a spike in mass school kidnappings in its northern states.

Over 1,000 students have been forcibly taken from their schools during those attacks, according to an Asocciated Press tally of figures previously confirmed by the police. Although most of those kidnapped have been released, many are still held by their abductors.