SOKOTO, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s leader promised authorities would intensify efforts to rescue 24 schoolgirls who were abducted by gunmen earlier this week from a school in the country’s restive northwestern region.

The girls were kidnapped from their dorm before dawn on Monday, when gunmen attacked their boarding school, the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in the town of Maga in Nigeria’s Kebbi state.

Local police said the gunmen scaled the fence to enter the dorm and exchanged gunfire with police officers guarding the school before seizing the girls and killing a staff member.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but analysts and locals say gangs often target schools, travelers and remote villagers in kidnappings for ransom. Authorities say the gunmen ar

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