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.