Nigeria's kidnapping crisis: 'Too scared to speak' - villagers on living in the midst of bandits

Parents of kidnapped children know where the bandits hide out, but are too scared to inform the authorities.

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"If they hear you say anything about them, before you know it they'll come for you. They'll come to your house and take you into the bush," one of them told the BBC. For his safety, the BBC is not identifying him and is calling him Aliyu.

His young son is one of more 300 students abducted when armed men stormed the grounds of St Mary's Catholic School in Papiri village in the central state of Niger in the early hours of 21 November.

Some of the children taken are as young as five years old. About 250 are still reportedly missing, though state officials have said this number is exaggerated.

The incident is part of a recent wave of mass abductions in north and central Nigeria - some of which have been blamed on criminal gangs, known locally as "bandits", who see kidnapping for ransom as a quick and easy way to make money.