On Friday December 11, 2020, at around 9:40 p.m., gunmen wielding AK-47 rifles stormed the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara, Katsina State on motorbikes, shot into the air and rounded up the students.

It is unclear how many students were kidnapped and how many have returned to their parents and guardians after scaling the perimeter fence on the night of the attack.

Witnesses and officials have estimated that the school typically holds 800 to 1,200 students.

More than 300 students are still missing, local authorities say.

It has been unclear who was behind the attack, with some witnesses saying the gunmen were bandits of Fulani extraction.

However, Boko Haram has now said it was behind the operation.

“I am Abubakar Shekau and our brothers are behind the kidnapping in Katsina,” said the leader of the group behind the 2014 abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls in Chibok, in a voice message issued on Tuesday, according to AFP.  "It was done to promote Islam and to discourage un-Islamic institutions and we haven't made any demands yet.”

A joint rescue operation was launched last Saturday by Nigeria’s police, air force and army, according to the government.

On Sunday, parents and family members gathered at the school, issuing a plea to authorities to bring the missing boys to safety.

“If it’s not government that will help us, we have no power to rescue our children,” Murja Mohammed, whose son was among the abducted, told the Reuters news agency.

More than 100 gunmen on motorcycles stormed the rural school north of Kankara town, forcing students to flee and hide in the surrounding bushes.

A number of boys were able to escape, but many were captured, split into groups and taken away, residents told AFP.

The kidnappings occurred in the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari, who condemned the attack and ordered security stepped up in schools, with those in Katsina state closed.

This is the first of such massive kidnappings in the northwest of Nigeria. Tuesday’s claim of responsibility also marks a major turning point in the advance of armed groups in northwest Nigeria.

Boko Haram, and its splinter Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) group, have been waging a decade-long insurgency in Nigeria's northeast and are thought to have only a minor presence in the northwest.

But concerns have grown of armed groups making inroads into the region, especially after fighters claiming to be in the northwest released a 2020 propaganda video pledging allegiance to Shekau.

The claim by Boko Haram has therefore confirmed fears of the group’s expansion of its operations to the northwest region of the country.