A young female student who was taken along with 24 others from a boarding school in northwestern Nigeria has managed to flee and is now safe, according to the school’s headmistress. The abduction took place before dawn on Monday at the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga town, Kebbi state, where armed assailants breached the school’s perimeter by climbing over the fence, engaging in a gun battle with police officers, and ultimately snatching the girls while fatally injuring a staff member.
Although no specific group has claimed responsibility for the abduction, it is a common tactic for criminal gangs to target schools, travelers, and rural communities for ransom. These gangs, largely comprised of former herders, have resorted to violence against farming communities due to resource disputes. The region, particularly northern Nigeria, has seen a surge in mass abductions, with Kebbi state being in close proximity to known conflict zones where various criminal groups operate.
One of the abducted students managed to escape shortly after the incident, while another student, who fled later, arrived home safely. The headmistress confirmed the well-being of the escaped girls, who were captured in a verified video appearing alongside family members in their early teens, wearing traditional headscarves. Prompted by this incident, security forces and local hunters have intensified their search efforts in nearby forests where the abductors may be hiding, with security personnel patrolling key routes leading to the school.
High-ranking officials, including Kebbi Governor Nasir Idris and Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Waidi Shaibu, have pledged vigorous rescue operations, emphasizing the importance of acting swiftly and decisively to ensure the safe return of the missing students. Families of the abducted children shared harrowing accounts of the attack, underscoring the anxiety and anger prevailing in the community.
This latest incident adds to a series of abductions in the region, with over 1,500 students having been kidnapped over the past decade by various criminal elements seeking attention and financial gains. Analysts attribute the prevailing insecurity to a lack of accountability for perpetrators, as well as systemic corruption that hampers law enforcement efforts while empowering criminal groups. Strategic abductions, particularly of school children, tend to attract widespread attention and highlight the deep-rooted challenges facing the region.
