Nigeria Launches Massive Hunt for 25 Girls Kidnapped from Kebbi School
Parents and authorities scramble to rescue 25 schoolgirls kidnapped from Kebbi, amid Nigeria’s worsening security crisis.
- 25 schoolgirls abducted from Maga, Kebbi; security forces intensify search
- Attack recalls 2014 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; parents hope for safe return
- Nigeria grapples with insurgency, ransom kidnappings, and escalating regional insecurity
Nigerian security forces have intensified efforts to rescue 25 schoolgirls abducted from a boarding school in Kebbi State, northwestern Nigeria, in the latest wave of mass kidnappings that highlight growing insecurity across the country.
According to police, armed men on motorcycles attacked the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga at around 4 a.m. local time on Monday. The assailants exchanged fire with security forces before climbing the school’s perimeter fence and abducting the students.
“We must find these children. Act decisively and professionally on all intelligence. Success is not optional,” Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu, told troops during a visit to Kebbi on Tuesday.
Local resident Nazifi Isa said he discovered that one of his daughters was among the abducted students. “Since yesterday, we haven’t eaten, and my wife is in tears. I can’t even go back home because I know how distraught she is,” he told Reuters.
The abduction comes amid rising security pressure on Nigeria, including threats from the United States over attacks on Christians by Islamist militants such as Boko Haram and ISWAP. The country continues to battle insurgencies in the northeast, ransom kidnappings in the northwest, and violent herder-farmer clashes in the central regions.
ISWAP claimed responsibility for the killing of an army general in the northeast over the weekend, further straining counterinsurgency operations. Meanwhile, in nearby Zamfara state, armed assailants reportedly kidnapped 64 people, including women and children, on Monday.
At Maga, parents waited anxiously for news of their children, recalling the 2014 Chibok abduction, when more than 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram, drawing international attention. Since then, hundreds of students have been seized across northern Nigeria, often with ransom demands.
