Gunmen staged an attack on a high school in northwestern Nigeria early Monday, seizing 25 schoolgirls and fatally injuring at least one staff member, officials reported. The incident marks the latest in a series of student abductions in the region.
No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction of the girls from the boarding school in Kebbi state, and their motives remain unclear. Nigeria is grappling with a complex security situation, particularly from elusive armed bandit groups known for ransom kidnappings, often demanding substantial sums of money. These bandits have been behind several high-profile abductions in the northern part of Nigeria.
The bandits are distinct from militant organizations like Boko Haram or the breakaway faction Islamic State West Africa Province, which carry out attacks based on religious motives. According to police, the schoolgirls were taken from their dormitories at 4 a.m. local time in Maga, located in the Danko-Wasagu area of the state.
The assailants, armed with advanced weaponry, engaged in a shootout with security guards before abducting the girls. A search and rescue operation is underway, with a focus on potential escape routes and nearby forests to locate the kidnapped students and apprehend the perpetrators.
While the police spokesperson mentioned one fatality and one person injured, a resident, whose daughter and granddaughter were taken, believes the death toll to be two. Armed groups have targeted school children in the region since the notorious 2014 Chibok abduction by Boko Haram, where 276 students were taken, leaving a lasting impact on the community.
Since then, over 1,500 students have been kidnapped by armed groups, using abductions as a means to generate funds for criminal activities and exert control over villages in the mineral-rich yet poorly policed region of Nigeria. While there have been successful rescues, such as the release of over 130 schoolchildren in Kaduna state in March 2024, authorities have implemented security measures to mitigate the frequency of school raids in recent years by closing schools in vulnerable areas.