New kidnapping of students in Nigeria. Gunmen attacked a high school in the country’s northwest overnight from Sunday to Monday, kidnapping 25 schoolgirls and killing at least one staff member, authorities said.
According to the Associated Press, police said the girls were taken from their dorm around 4 a.m. Monday morning. The site was located in Maga, in the Danko-Wasagu region, said police spokesman Nafi’u Abubakar Kotarkoshi. The attackers were armed with “sophisticated weapons” and exchanged fire with guards before abducting the girls, he said.
“Joint teams are currently combing the suspected escape route and surrounding forests as part of a coordinated search and rescue operation to locate the abducted students and arrest the kidnappers,” said Nafi’u Abubakar Kotarkoshi.
He said one person was killed and another was injured, but a resident whose daughter and granddaughter were kidnapped in the raid believed the death toll was two. “We were told that the attackers entered the school on many motorbikes. They first went straight to the professor’s house and killed him before killing the guard,” said Abdulkarim Abdullahi Maga.
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Unclaimed attack
At this time, no group has claimed responsibility for the girls’ abduction and their motivations remain unclear.
Nigeria faces multidimensional security challenges, particularly from unidentified armed groups that specialize in kidnapping for ransom. Kidnappings and attacks on villages and main roads have become commonplace due to the weak presence of security forces.
These bandits are not a priori linked to groups such as Boko Haram and the West African dissident group ISIS, whose attacks are religiously motivated.
Since 2014, when Boko Haram kidnapped 276 students in Chibok, Borno State, the armed group has targeted school children in the area. This kidnapping marked the beginning of a new era of terror, and dozens of children are still being held hostage.
Although raids on schools have decreased in recent years, at least 1,500 students have been abducted in the country since the Chibok abduction.
