LAGOS, Nigeria(AFP)—Forty-six people, most of them children, were kidnapped during an attack on three schools in southwest Nigerian last week, the Christian Association of Nigeria said on Monday.

CAN president for Oyo state, Elisha Olukayode Ogundiya, told AFP that “46 persons, mostly children” aged from two to 16 were seized in the attacks in the southwestern state on Friday.

Nigeria is battling a scourge of criminal gangs known as bandits who kidnap for ransom and target rural areas. But most attacks, including school kidnappings, have mostly happened in the north and centre of the country, where the conflict is most prominent.

Gunmen simultaneously raided Baptist Nursery and Primary in Yawota, and two other schools in Esiele, in what police called a “coordinated attack”.

The attackers seized “some pupils, students and staff members” from the schools, “including the vice principal,” police said in a statement last week.

The attack forced Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board to order the temporary closure of surrounding schools Friday to “prevent any secondary incidents and to allow security agencies to thoroughly stabilise the area”.

It later said schools should reopen on Monday.