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 stated within the area.

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

Nigeria has been dealing with a multi-dimensional safety problem with threats from a variety of various teams. Armed bandits who concentrate on kidnapping for ransom — generally totaling 1000’s of {dollars} — have been liable for a number of high-profile abductions throughout Nigeria’s northern area. Kidnappings and assaults on villages and alongside main roads have turn out to be widespread due to the restricted safety presence.

These bandits will not be linked 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 college ladies had 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 stated.

The assailants had been armed with “subtle weapons” and exchanged hearth with guards earlier than abducting the ladies, Kotarkoshi stated.

“A mixed group is at present 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 stated.

Assaults have focused schoolchildren within the area since no 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.

Because the Chibok abductions, no less than 1,500 college students have been kidnapped, as armed teams more and more discover in abductions a profitable technique to fund different crimes and management villages within the nation’s mineral-rich however poorly policed area. In March 2024, greater than 130 schoolchildren had been rescued after spending greater than two weeks in captivity within the Nigerian state of Kaduna.