Tragedy Strikes Again: Gunmen Abduct 25 Schoolgirls in Nigeria

In Nigeria's Kebbi State, gunmen attacked a government girls' boarding school, killing the vice principal and abducting 25 female students. The violence marks another mass kidnapping in Nigeria's northwest, where armed gangs seek ransom. Security forces are engaged in a search-and-rescue operation to recover the abducted students.

An early morning assault on a government girls' boarding school in Nigeria's Kebbi State resulted in the tragic death of the vice principal and the abduction of 25 female students, police have reported. The assailants, reportedly armed and coordinated, invaded Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga town at around 4 a.m. local time. A gunfight ensued with police officers before the attackers gained access by scaling the perimeter fence to seize the students, according to police spokesperson Nafiu Abubakar Kotarkoshi.

Vice Principal Hassan Yakubu Makuku was fatally shot in his efforts to fend off the attackers, while another staff member was injured by gunfire, Kotarkoshi noted. In response to the attack, police, soldiers, and local vigilantes have launched a search-and-rescue mission, scouring potential escape routes and nearby forests for the missing students.

This abduction, one of many in northwest Nigeria, highlights the security challenges the region faces from armed gangs. Such kidnappings, often motivated by ransom demands, persist despite governmental promises to bolster security measures. This latest incident echoes the harrowing 2014 kidnapping by Boko Haram of 270 schoolgirls from Chibok, a crime that shocked the world and remains partially unresolved as some of the victims have never been found.

(With inputs from agencies.)