Terror as mass kidnapping sees 25 faculty women snatched and workers member shot by armed gang
One staff member at the school was killed and another was wounded in what was the latest incident of school abductions signalled the dawn of a new era of terror
Armed attackers have stormed a secondary school in north-western Nigeria and kidnapped 25 schoolgirls, according to police reports. One member of staff was killed whilst another sustained injuries in what marks the most recent episode of school kidnappings plaguing Nigeria’s northern territories.
No organisation has yet stepped forward to claim responsibility for the abductions from the boarding establishment in Kebbi state. Police confirmed the assault occurred at 4am local time, with the girls being seized from their dormitories.
The boarding institution is located in Maga, within the state’s Danko-Wasagu district, according to police spokesman Nafi’u Abubakar Kotarkoshi. The raiders carried “sophisticated weapons” and engaged in gunfire with security personnel before making off with the pupils, Kotarkoshi revealed.
“A combined team is currently combing suspected escape routes and surrounding forests in a co-ordinated search and rescue operation aimed at recovering the abducted students and arresting the perpetrators,” the spokesperson added.
This represents the most recent school seizure in Nigeria’s northern territories, where militant factions have preyed upon schoolchildren since 2014, when extremist group Boko Haram snatched 276 pupils from Chibok in Borno state.
Abductions have become routine across swathes of northern Nigeria, where numerous armed bands exploit weak security coverage to launch assaults on communities and major thoroughfares.
The majority of captives are freed only following ransom payments that can reach thousands of dollars. In March 2024, over 130 schoolchildren were saved after enduring more than a fortnight of captivity in the Nigerian state of Kaduna.
The mass kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok signalled the dawn of a new era of terror – with nearly 100 of the girls still held captive in 2024.
Since the Chibok kidnappings, at least 1,500 students have been abducted, as armed factions increasingly see kidnappings as a profitable means to finance other crimes and dominate villages in the nation’s mineral-rich but inadequately policed region.
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