25 schoolgirls kidnapped after gunmen attack secondary school in Nigeria

More than two dozen schoolgirls have been kidnapped and one staff member killed after gunmen attacked a secondary school in northwestern Nigeria, police in the region said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of 25 girls from Kebbi state boarding school, and the motive for the attack was unclear.

Nigeria has faced a multidimensional security challenge with threats from a variety of different groups. Armed bandits who specialize in kidnapping for ransom (sometimes for thousands of dollars) have been responsible for several high-profile kidnappings in Nigeria’s northern region. Kidnappings and attacks on villages and along main roads have become common due to the limited security presence.

Those bandits are not connected to militant groups such as Boko Haram and the splinter group Islamic State West Africa Province, whose attacks on communities and government facilities are motivated by religion.

Police said the boarding school girls were taken from their dormitories around 4 a.m. Monday. The school is in Maga, in the Danko-Wasagu area of ​​the state, said police spokesman Nafi’u Abubakar Kotarkoshi.

The attackers were armed with “sophisticated weapons” and exchanged gunfire with the guards before kidnapping the girls, Kotarkoshi said.

“A combined team is scouring suspected escape routes and surrounding forests in a coordinated search and rescue operation aimed at recovering the kidnapped students and arresting the perpetrators,” the spokesperson said.

Attacks have targeted schoolchildren in the region since at least 2014, when Boko Haram kidnapped 276 students from Chibok in Borno state. That kidnapping marked the beginning of a new era of fear. Dozens of them remain in captivity.

Since the Chibok kidnappings, at least 1,500 students have been kidnapped, as armed groups increasingly find kidnappings a lucrative way to finance other crimes and control villages in the mineral-rich but poorly policed ​​region of the country. In March 2024, more than 130 schoolchildren were rescued after spending more than two weeks in captivity in the Nigerian state of Kaduna.