this is bbc news, the headlines: the uk health secretary, matt hancock, has resigned after he breached social distancing guidelines, by kissing a colleague in his office. mr hancock informed the prime minister he was resigning in a letter, saying he'd let people down. former chancellor sajid javid has been confirmed as the new health secretary. in the us, rescuers searching for survivors after an apartment building collapsed in florida say their efforts are being hampered by fires which have broken out in the rubble. it's emerged there'd been warnings three years ago about the building's structural safety. five people are known to have died, with almost 160 missing. five people have died in a hot air balloon accident in albuquerque, in southwestern united states.

the accident caused power outages in the area after the balloon came into contact with a power line. police said the wind had pushed the balloon into power lines where it then caught fire. now on bbc news, our world. kidnappers have seized more than a thousand students and staff from schools in a series of raids across northern nigeria. the wave of abductions has had devastating consequences. it should be the safest place a child could be. why do you study? from there, to go back towards what? but schools in northern nigeria are being targeted by kidnappers.

since december, more than 1,000 students have been abducted in the region. and it's affecting everyone from the youngest to the oldest pupils, rich and poor. save this country from the hands of these evil people! she said: "mummy, they came to our school yesterday night and kidnapped us. " she now says: "mummy, come and see, they are just beating us." so, why are criminal gangs kidnapping schoolchildren? to find out, i've travelled across northern and central nigeria, speaking to those affected. this banditry is not some mere criminality. and the only way to deal with it is to launch a full—scale war against the bandits.

under the cover of darkness, criminal gangs are disturbing the peace. armed men are targeting boarding schools, stealing children away as they sleep. since the kidnapping of the chibok girls in 2014, the mass abduction of schoolchildren has become an increasingly common phenomenon here in nigeria. and every time, it follows a similar, chilling pattern. armed gunmen storm dormitories in the middle of the night, often arriving by foot or by motorbike, and take dozens of students with them into nearby forests. 39 students and staff were seized from the forestry school in the northern state of kaduna in early march. a video of the hostages was sent to the parents

on social media. victory sani and her sister, rejoice, were among those abducted. since that day, their parents have been trying to secure their release. victory is my first daughter, she has done a lot of schooling, she's a brilliant student. rejoice is someone who loves hairdressing, she plaits, she braids. the two of them are too addicted to themselves that they are always finding it difficult to live with each other. ——leave.

mr sani, since the incident, have you been contacted by the bandits? first contact that we was from the bandits, demanding for 500 million naira from the state government. and when we got a video of our children being flogged in the bush, i was sent to the social media by the bandits. we decided to go in protests. chanting. after ten days with no news of the 39 pupils seized at the forestry school... chanting. ..friday sani and other parents took to the street to protest. authorities threatened to prosecute anyone negotiating with the kidnappers, including parents.

the government came out again with another press statement, that anyone caught negotiating with the bandits would be arrested and prosecuted. but we would prefer to be arrested, provided our children would be in their home, at home. so, you are saying the strategy is not working? it's not working. if there is any strategy at all! people are dying and look as if nobody cares. it looks as if nobody cares. and we are still calling on the government to do something, fast. because those people will lose their patience and do something irrational. over the past seven months, a wave of kidnappings targeting schools and universities has swept the region. there have been nine mass abductions of students across five states. many believe the payment of ransom has created an industry. more than 1,000 students and staff have been taken and nine students have been killed.

this round of kidnappings started in december, when more than 300 schoolboys were abducted from their dorms in the town of kankara. the town lies in a rural part of nigeria's north—western katsina state, vulnerable to attack. at the time i travelled to kankara to cover the story. back then, i met usama, a student with sickle cell, who had managed to escape the kidnappers. i also spoke to ruqayya bello and bello sidi, whose asthmatic 14—year—old son, umar, was still missing. the kidnapped boys were released after six days. now, the school remains closed, leaving many boys at home without an education.

the situation remains precarious. less than six months ago, we drove down this road to the town of kankara, to cover the kidnapping of over 300 schoolboys by armed men. since then, the area has become even more unsafe, with multiple reports of attacks. ursama and others in his year have been relocated to a school in a safer location, closer to the state capital. why do you study? from there, to go back toward, what? what about the second one? he's one of the lucky few attending class, so he can take his school leaving exams. z is what? y? that moves from 2 to y. while he's pleased to be

reunited with his friends, the past is hard to forget. as a young person studying in nigeria today, how safe do you feel? 14—year—old umar has also been reunited with his parents. he remembers the day he got

to see them again fondly. tell us about your time in the forest, umar, what was it like? was it difficult, did you have enough to eat?

when you think about umar going back to the school, to sleep there, do you feel a bit nervous? in katsina, where ransoms were allegedly played, umar and others were safely reunited with theirfamilies. but one state in nigeria's north has taken a different approach. i am travelling to neighbouring

kaduna, where the state's governor has taken a stand against the payment of ransoms. he has repeatedly appeared on loca media to say he will not speak to, let alone negotiate with, armed gangs that are attacking rural communities. it has had devastating consequences — the number of kidnappings have increased. # we sing his praise. # we rise to see ourjesus.# mr and mrs yoanna's daughter dorothy attended the private greenfield university. 0n the day after she was abducted, mrs yoanna got a phone call from the kidnappers who put dorothy on the line. she said, "mummy, they came to our school yesterday night—time, they kidnapped us, we are in the bush.

she now said, "mummy, come and see, they are just beating us." then the man collected the phone and he said they need money. if you want them to release our children, we must be 800 million. i shouted and screamed, i said "800 million?" so they asked for 800 million naira. that's about $2 million. did you have that kind of money? no. and i told him, "how did you expect us to get such money?" that was the last i spoke to her, and the man. we are still asking questions as to how this thing - happened, why our daughter? just two days later, mr yohanna got a call

from the university telling him to come to a local hospital to identify the bodies of three students. when i went inside, the first person i saw was my daughter. i screamed, i said "they killed my daughter!" ijust wept and then it was when i came to the home that i broke the news to them that dorothy is no more. that was when i started crying. that is when my voice now ceased, since that very day. you both had the worst possible news that any parent could hear. are you satisfied with the response from the authorities? i'm not satisfied because this thing happened on tuesday, and they called me on wednesday, and on friday, they killed my daughter. there is nojustice in that.

i don't believe there is justice in that case. kaduna's state government says it has a strict policy of not negotiating with criminals, they don't pay ransoms. what do you both make of that decision? the people whojudge, the whole world should judge on that. therefore we will be praying for our whole nation, - nigeria. this nation is burning. if they are not ready to negotiate with criminals, i also hope they have the way of getting the criminals because if they don't get the criminals and they are not negotiating with them, then we are in trouble. father, keep watch over your children. | you are the keeper of zion, | you never sleep or slumber. save this country from the l hands of these evil peoples. you know, the more you speak to parents whose children have been kidnapped, the more overwhelming this problem is. i became a parent myself a year ago so i understand,

if your child has been taken, all you want them is for them to come back home. but then there is the other side of the argument. if you pay ransoms, the kidnappings continue, it's an industry that is growing, so if you are a parent in nigeria right now, it's frightening because you want it to stop, but then you want your children to come back, and there are no clear answers. two more students from greenfield were killed after dorothy. eventually, the remaining abductees were released after the parents paid the kidnappers 150 million naira. that's $360 , 000. but nasir el—rufai, the governor of kaduna state, is refusing to pay ransoms, a policy which only seems to have emboldened the kidnappers. they have decided that they have to bring this state

government to its knees by concentrating their attacks in this state. so you think that one of the reasons why they may be targeting the states is because you've made it clear that you won't pay ransoms? yes. do you think then that by making that statement, you're putting your citizens, your residents of kaduna state, at greater risk? not necessarily. i think, in the long run, or even in the medium term, it actually makes the state safer. we still have kidnappers, we have individuals being kidnapped, we even have attempted kidnap of students, they have been successful in two cases, but not on the kind of scale you've seen in other states. here in kaduna just last week, three university students were kidnapped. yes. so how can you tell their parents that their children were safer? i commiserate with the parents, i sympathise with them, but that will not change our stand. the only way to end kidnapping is for societies to stake a stand that we will not pay. i know the pain of losing children, but i have to subordinate that

to the overall interest of the society which elected me to provide leadership. the nigerian government has long denied the links between criminal groups operating in north—western nigeria and the extremist group boko haram in the north—east. but in recent months, they have acknowledged that the two security crises may now be connected. we have to branches of islamic state active or building up here, and it's quite worrying, and this is why i said that the country is at war. this banditry is not some mere criminality, it is war, and the only way to deal with it is to launch a full—scale war against the bandits because the bandits and terrorists are linked, and they are one and the same. if boko haram's influence is spreading, doesn't it show that the federal government doesn't have a handle on security

at all in nigeria, like many nigerians are saying, they haven't handled security well. no, security has definitely improved. those that are, yeah, yeah... i think many parents would disagree with you. when we came into office, boko haram occupied how many local governments in borno state? today they are restricted. should they have been wiped out? yeah. we work with the security forces to try to rescue the students. they are doing their best, but they can do better. the resources available to them can be improved, definitely. criminal gangs are not only targeting schools. they also regularly abduct civilians travelling by road. some think that negotiation is the only way to end the the kidnapping pandemic sweeping rural areas. villages have been raided and the death toll is rising.

according to the international crisis group, many but not all of these gangs are made up of members of the seminomadic fulani ethnic group. traditionally they made their living from cattle rearing but climate change and competition for resources has left many of them without an income. controversial islamic cleric ahmad gumi has made acted as a self—appointed mediator between groups of kidnappers and the government but the sheikh says the marginalisation of the nigeria's fulani population is counterproductive. they are voiceless in nigeria so they express themselves in a violent way. it's dangerous for a nation like nigeria that has a lot of money to allow a big segment of this population, without any formal or informal education, to behave in a certain manner.

i understand that they might be unhappy with the way they've been treated by the authorities in the past. do you think that that killing, that action is justified? it doesn't justify crime at all from whatever angle it is. when you put people in the middle of a war, they feel it is right to kill the opposite. that is what is happening in nigeria now. the press has been saying, fulani men are criminals, killers, the nation is charged against fulani. innocent people. while we were filming, there is news of victory and rejoice, the missing sisters from the forestry school. they finally made it home. theirjoyful prayers this time,

as the girls are reunited with their family. rejoice and victory, you're home. welcome home. ijoined them on a video call from lagos. what is it like to have your daughters home with you, how do you feel? now that the this thing

has happened to you, this terrible thing, are you going to apply to university? what about you, rejoice, are you scared? especially if you have to sleep there? the students' release was negotiated by sheikh gumi. the return is not an uncommon experience. the majority of children who have been kidnapped in the last eight months have gone home. but there is no doubt that education here has been deeply disturbed. the subject is what, plural. the answer is plural. even before the kidnappings, nigeria was home to the largest number of out—of—school children in the world. in the north of the country,

only one in two attend school. now schools here are no longer secure. many have been forced to close. families continue to live in fear that their child could be the next to be taken. hello there. the first half of the weekend brought us plenty of dry weather. for many places, the second half of the weekend promises more of the same.

but in southern areas, there's quite a big change on the way, blue skies in swanage on saturday afternoon, sunday afternoon will bring grey skies and some outbreaks of rain in the south. courtesy of a very slow moving weather system. you can see this curl of cloud and an area of low pressure that has become marooned just to the northwest of france. it will be throwing this band of rain northwards across the channel islands into southern counties of england through sunday morning, the odd shower running ahead of that into east anglia, the midlands, into parts of wales, more persistent rain to the south midlands and south of wales later, but all the while northern england and ireland, much of scotland will be dry with sunny spells although thicker cloud could bring the odd spot of rain in the far northwest of scotland. 15 degrees in stornoway, 22 the high in london. some of this rain could turn pretty heavy with the odd rumble of thunder. it will move north overnight into parts of east anglia. maybe even clipping into parts of northern england.

northern ireland and scotland stay dry with clear spells and temperatures staying in double digits for most of us. the slow moving weather system will still be with us into monday. that means further outbreaks of rain at times across the south with high—pressure building in further north and that is where we will see the driest of the weather. wet start across parts of wales in the southwest of england. a few more showers developing for southeast england, the midlands and east anglia through the day, maybe one or two into northern england, northern ireland and scotland should be dry with spells of sunshine, i think we see the highest temperatures across western scotland, 23, maybe 2a degrees. those showers in the south not great news for the start of wimbledon. there could be interruptions to the play on monday and indeed heading into tuesday because our slow moving weather system will still be with us, further pulses of rain across the south of the uk where further north our area of high pressure will keep things drier, sunnier and warmer. we could see temperatures in glasgow on tuesday getting up to 25 degrees, but always the chance

for outbreaks of rain further south.

this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm rich preston. our top stories: the uk health secretary matt hancock resigns, over the publication of pictures showing him kissing a colleague, in breach of covid guidance. he'll be replaced by sajid javid. he'd led the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic from the very beginning and says he's let people down. i understand the enormous sacrifices that everybody in this country has made, that you have made, and those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them, and that is why i have got to resign. the mayor of the miami county where an apartment block collapsed, has ordered an immediate audit of all buildings of a similar age — five people have been confirmed dead.