ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen attacked a highschool in northwestern Nigeria earlier than daybreak on Monday, taking 25 schoolgirls and killing at the very least one staffer, authorities stated of the most recent abduction of scholars within the area.
No group instantly claimed duty for abducting the ladies from the boarding faculty in Kebbi state and their motivation was unclear.
Nigeria is going through a multidimensional safety problem, particularly from amorphous teams of armed bandits who concentrate on kidnapping for ransoms — generally totaling hundreds of {dollars} — and have been answerable for a number of high-profile abductions throughout Nigeria’s northern area. Kidnappings, assaults on villages and alongside main roads have develop into frequent due to the restricted safety presence.
These bandits will not be related to militant teams resembling Boko Haram and the splinter group Islamic State West Africa Province, whose assaults on communities and authorities installations are motivated by faith.
Police stated the boarding schoolgirls have been taken from their dorms at 4 a.m. Monday. The varsity is in Maga, within the state’s Danko-Wasagu space, police spokesperson Nafi’u Abubakar Kotarkoshi stated.
The assailants have been armed with “sophisticated weapons” and exchanged hearth with guards earlier than abducting the ladies, Kotarkoshi stated.
“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,” the spokesperson stated.
Kotarkoshi stated one individual was killed and one other was injured, however a resident who stated his daughter and granddaughter have been kidnapped within the raid believes the loss of life toll stands at two.
“We were told that the attackers entered the school with many motorcycles. They first went straight to the teacher’s house and killed him before killing the guard,” stated Abdulkarim Abdullahi Maga.
Police didn’t reply to an Related Press name searching for affirmation of a second loss of life.
Armed teams have focused faculty youngsters within the area since 2014, when Boko Haram kidnapped 276 college students from Chibok in Borno state. That abduction marked the start of a brand new period of worry, and dozens stay in captivity.
For the reason that Chibok abductions, at the very least 1,500 college students have been kidnapped, as armed teams more and more discover in abductions a profitable solution to fund different crimes and management villages within the nation’s mineral-rich however poorly policed area. In March 2024, greater than 130 schoolchildren have been rescued after spending greater than two weeks in captivity within the Nigerian state of Kaduna.
Nonetheless, raids on faculties have subsided in recent times as state governments applied safety measures in sizzling spots, together with closing faculties for an prolonged time period.
Freelance journalist Mohammed Ibrahim in Kaduna, Nigeria, contributed.
