25 schoolgirls kidnapped after gunmen assault highschool in Nigeria

Greater than two dozen schoolgirls have been kidnapped and one staffer has been killed after gunmen attacked a highschool in northwestern Nigeria, police mentioned within the area.

No group instantly claimed accountability for the abductions of 25 women from the boarding faculty in Kebbi state, and the motivation for the assault is unclear.

Nigeria has been going through a multi-dimensional safety problem with threats from a spread of various teams. Armed bandits who specialise in kidnapping for ransom — generally totaling hundreds of {dollars} — have been accountable for a number of high-profile abductions throughout Nigeria’s northern area. Kidnappings and assaults on villages and alongside main roads have develop into frequent due to the restricted safety presence.

These bandits are usually not linked to militant teams reminiscent of Boko Haram and the splinter group Islamic State West Africa Province, whose assaults on communities and authorities installations are motivated by faith.

Police mentioned the boarding faculty women have been taken from their dorms at about 4 a.m. Monday. The college is in Maga, within the state’s Danko-Wasagu space, police spokesperson Nafi’u Abubakar Kotarkoshi mentioned.

The assailants have been armed with “subtle weapons” and exchanged fireplace with guards earlier than abducting the ladies, Kotarkoshi mentioned.

“A mixed workforce is presently combing suspected escape routes and surrounding forests in a coordinated search and rescue operation aimed toward recovering the kidnapped college students and arresting the perpetrators,” the spokesperson mentioned.

Assaults have focused schoolchildren within the area since not less than 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. Dozens stay in captivity.

For the reason that Chibok abductions, not less than 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.