A series of militant attacks on schools in Nigeria over the past week has left more than 80 children missing, according to local officials and human rights groups. The attacks targeted schools in both northeastern and southwestern parts of the country, raising renewed concerns over insecurity and mass abductions.

On October 13, suspected Islamic State-backed rebels killed 19 civilians in an overnight attack in eastern Congo, local officials reported on Monday, further escalating insecurity in the mineral-rich region.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack at a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Oman, where at least six people, including a policeman, were killed and 28 wounded, in a rare operation in one of the most stable countries in the Middle East, the group said in a statement on Telegram on Tuesday.