Suspected gunmen stormed a state-run girls’ boarding school in northwestern Nigeria before dawn Monday, killing a staff member and abducting at least 25 students, according to Xinhua.
Police said the attackers, described as “bandits” and armed with sophisticated weapons, scaled the fence of the Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, a community in the Wasagu/Danko Local Government Area of Kebbi state. The gunmen seized at least 25 girls from their hostel and took them to an unknown location.
Local police spokesman Nafiu Abubakar Kotakoshi told reporters that another staff member was injured in the assault and warned that the number of missing students could rise as authorities complete headcounts. Xinhua reported that officers are still working to verify how many girls were in the dormitories at the time of the raid.
Security forces have launched a search-and-rescue operation, combing known bandit routes and nearby forests in an effort to track the kidnappers and locate the schoolgirls, Kotakoshi said.
Nigeria has faced repeated attacks on schools in the north in recent years, as armed gangs commonly referred to as bandits abduct students and villagers for ransom, forcing authorities to bolster security around classrooms and boarding facilities.
The kidnapping in Kebbi on Monday has made parents and school administrators even more worried about the safety of pupils in distant areas where there aren’t many security patrols and it can take a long time for help to arrive.
A global media for the latest news, entertainment, music fashion, and more.
