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Gunmen attacked a high school in northern Nigeria before dawn on Monday, killing 25 schoolchildren and killing at least one staffer, regional authorities said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for abducting the girls from a boarding school in Kebbi State and their motive was unclear.
Nigeria is facing various security challenges, especially with the amorphous groups of armed groups that focus on the kidnapping of vultures – sometimes they receive thousands of dollars – and have caused several high-profile cases in the Northern region.
Kidnapping, attacks on towns and highways have become common due to limited security.
‘Sophisticated Weapons’
The Panghetti are not believed to be linked to militant groups such as Boko Haram or the Splinter Group Islamic State West Africa Ever Province and the government’s involvement is motivated by religion.
Police said the students were taken from their dorms at 4 a.m. local time on Monday. The school is located in Maga, Molobi Danko-Wasagu area, said police spokesperson Nafi’u Abubakar Kotarhoshi.
The attackers were armed with “professional weapons” and exchanged fire with security guards before abducting the girls, Kotarhoshi said.
“The joint team is currently combing the suspected escape routes and the surrounding forests for search and rescue with the aim of retrieving the kidnapped students and arresting the perpetrators,” said the agency’s spokesperson.
Kotarkoshi said that one person was killed and another was injured, but a resident who said that his daughter and grandson were kidnapped in the attack, the death toll.
“We were told that the attackers entered the school on many motorcycles. They first went straight to the teacher’s house and killed him before killing the guard,” said Abdulkarim Abdullahi Maga.
Police did not respond to media inquiries seeking confirmation of the second death.
Armed groups have targeted school children in the region since 2014, when Boko Haram kidnapped 276 students from Chibok in Borno State. That kidnapping marked the beginning of a new era of terror, and many remain in exile.
A group of 279 Nigerian SchoolGirls were kidnapped at gunpoint and released. But mass kidnappings for ransom have increased, and the government is under increasing pressure to stop them.
Since the Chibok abductions, at least 1,500 students have been kidnapped, as armed groups increasingly get to carry the income to finance other crimes and crime-ridden villages and a well-established country. In March 2024, more than 130 school children were rescued after spending more than two weeks in exile in Nigeria’s Kaduna state.
However, attacks on schools have increased in recent years as national governments have implemented security measures in hot spots, including closing schools for extended periods.
