Gunmen Storm Nigerian School, Abduct 25 Girls; One Staff Member Killed

Before dawn on Monday, armed gunmen launched a brutal attack on a high school in northwestern Nigeria’s Kebbi state, abducting 25 schoolgirls and killing one staff member. Another staffer was left critically injured in the assault.

According to police spokesperson Nafi’u Abubakar Kotarkoshi, the attackers struck at 4:00 a.m., entering the boarding school in Maga, Danko-Wasagu area, and forcibly taking the girls from their dormitories.

The assailants were armed with sophisticated weapons and reportedly exchanged heavy gunfire with the school guards before fleeing with the abducted students.

Kotarkoshi said:

“A combined security team is currently combing suspected escape routes and surrounding forests in a coordinated search and rescue operation to recover the abducted students and apprehend the perpetrators.”

This latest attack adds to a growing list of school kidnappings in northern Nigeria, a crisis that escalated in 2014 when Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from Chibok, nearly 100 of whom remain missing as of 2024.

Kidnappings have become rampant in parts of northern Nigeria, where dozens of armed groups exploit weak security to target schools, villages and highways. Most victims are released only after paying large ransoms.

In March 2024, more than 130 abducted schoolchildren were rescued in Kaduna state after being held captive for over two weeks.

Since the Chibok incident, at least 1,500 students have been kidnapped in the region—making abductions a lucrative and terrifying tool for criminal groups seeking money, control and influence in mineral-rich but poorly policed areas.