ABUJA, Nigeria — Gunmen attacked a highschool in northwestern Nigeria earlier than daybreak on Monday and kidnapped 25 schoolgirls, police stated. One staffer on the college was killed and one other was wounded in what was the newest incident of school abductions in Nigeria’s northern region.
No group instantly claimed duty for the abductions from the boarding college in Kebbi state.
Based on police, the incident occurred at 4:00 a.m. and the ladies had been kidnapped from their dorms. The boarding college is in Maga, within the state’s Danko-Wasagu space, police spokesperson Nafi’u Abubakar Kotarkoshi stated.
The assailants had been armed with “subtle weapons” and exchanged fireplace with guards earlier than abducting the ladies, Kotarkoshi stated.
“A mixed group is at present combing suspected escape routes and surrounding forests in a coordinated search and rescue operation geared toward recovering the kidnapped college students and arresting the perpetrators,” the spokesperson added.
That is the newest college abduction in Nigeria’s northern area, the place armed teams have focused college kids since 2014, when the militant Boko Haram group kidnapped 276 college students from Chibok in Borno state.
Kidnappings have grow to be frequent in elements of northern Nigeria, the place dozens of armed teams make the most of a restricted safety presence to hold out assaults on villages and alongside main roads. Most victims are launched solely after the cost of ransoms that generally run into the 1000’s of {dollars}.
In March 2024, greater than 130 schoolchildren were rescued after spending greater than two weeks in captivity within the Nigerian state of Kaduna.
The mass abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok marked the start of a brand new period of worry — with practically 100 of the ladies nonetheless in captivity in 2024.
For the reason that Chibok abductions, at least 1,500 students have been kidnapped, as armed teams more and more discover in abductions a profitable method to fund different crimes and management villages within the nation’s mineral-rich however poorly policed area.
