Armed men have abducted an undisclosed number of schoolgirls from a boarding secondary school in Kebbi State, North-West Nigeria, in the latest attack underscoring the country’s ongoing security crisis.
Police said the assailants stormed the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Danko-Wasagu Local Government Area, at about 4 a.m. on Monday, attacking the compound while most students were asleep.
According to state police spokesperson Nafi’u Abubakar Kotarkoshi, the gunmen, armed with “sophisticated weapons,” exchanged fire with school guards before forcing their way into the dormitories and seizing the girls.
“A combined team is currently combing suspected escape routes and surrounding forests in a coordinated search and rescue operation aimed at recovering the abducted students and arresting the perpetrators,” Kotarkoshi said.
He added that the school’s vice principal was killed while reportedly trying to shield the students, and another staff member sustained gunshot wounds during the attack.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, and the motive remains unclear. However, authorities suspect the involvement of armed bandit gangs that have, in recent years, turned mass abductions into a lucrative criminal enterprise, extorting ransoms that can run into thousands of dollars.
These bandit groups, largely driven by financial gain rather than ideology, operate separately from jihadist organisations such as Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), whose attacks are typically motivated by extremist religious and political aims.
Kidnappings, village raids and highway attacks have become common across many parts of northern Nigeria, fuelled by weak state presence, porous borders and limited economic opportunities. Rural communities often complain of slow or insufficient security responses, leaving them vulnerable to repeated assaults.
Monday’s abduction adds to a grim pattern of attacks on schools that began drawing international attention in 2014, when Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from Chibok in Borno State. That attack triggered global outrage and the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, yet dozens of the Chibok girls are still missing.
Since then, at least 1,500 students have been kidnapped across northern Nigeria, as criminal groups increasingly see schools as soft targets for high-impact ransom operations. In March 2024, more than 130 schoolchildren were freed after being held for over two weeks in neighbouring Kaduna State.
Although raids on schools have reduced in frequency in recent years—partly due to state governments temporarily closing vulnerable schools and reinforcing security in high-risk areas—the latest attack in Kebbi is a stark reminder that the threat is far from over.
Parents and residents in Maga and surrounding communities are now anxiously awaiting news, as security forces race against time to track the kidnappers and rescue the missing girls alive.
