MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (BN24)— Nigerian security forces intensified their search Tuesday for 25 girls abducted from a boarding school in northwestern Kebbi state, the latest in a series of school kidnappings that continue to plague the country.
Police said armed men stormed the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga town around 4 a.m. local time (0300 GMT) on Monday. The attackers, arriving on motorcycles, engaged police in gunfire before scaling the school’s perimeter fence and abducting the students. Authorities described the operation as well-planned.
“We must find these children. Act decisively and professionally on all intelligence. Success is not optional,” Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu, Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, told troops during a visit to Kebbi on Tuesday.
Nazifi Isa, a resident, said he learned of the abduction after dawn prayers at a mosque. One of his two daughters was among those taken. “Since yesterday, we haven’t eaten, and my wife is in tears. I can’t even go back home to see her because I know how distraught she is,” Isa told Reuters by phone.
The abduction comes as Nigeria faces mounting pressure from the United States following threats of military action by former President Donald Trump over the persecution of Christians by Islamist insurgents, including Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram.
The kidnapping highlights the continuing insecurity across Nigeria. In the northeast, the government battles Islamist insurgents, while the northwest has seen a rise in ransom kidnappings by armed groups. Clashes between cattle herders and farmers persist in the central “middle belt” region.
ISWAP said its fighters abducted and executed an army general in the northeast over the weekend, dealing a blow to Nigeria’s counterinsurgency efforts. Local media also reported that on Monday, another armed gang kidnapped 64 people, including women and children, in neighboring Zamfara state. Many kidnappings go unreported because they occur in remote areas with limited communication.
At Maga school, some parents waited in hope that their children would be found alive. The attack evoked memories of Boko Haram’s 2014 abduction of more than 300 Chibok schoolgirls, which sparked global outrage. Some of those girls later escaped or were released, but hundreds remain missing. Since then, kidnappings from schools and universities for ransom have become a recurring threat.
