Maga, Kebbi State — A girl taken with 24 classmates from a dormitory in northwestern Nigeria escaped and returned home late Monday, the principal of Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School told The Associated Press as hunters and security forces scoured nearby forests for the remaining students.
Gunmen attacked the campus before dawn on Monday, scaling the school fence, exchanging fire with police and seizing girls from the dormitory, officials said. A school staff member was killed in the raid. No group has claimed responsibility; analysts and residents say gangs of bandits — often ex-herders who turned to armed crime after clashes with farmers — frequently abduct students, travelers and villagers for ransom.
The school sits near conflict hotspots in Zamfara and Sokoto states, where armed gangs operate and hide. Mass abductions of schoolchildren have become common in northern Nigeria and are often used to attract attention.
Principal Musa Rabi Magaji said one of the kidnapped girls escaped and arrived home hours after the attack. He added that another student fled in the immediate aftermath and was not taken. “They are safe and sound,” Magaji said. A video verified by AP shows the two girls, appearing to be in their early teens, surrounded by family and villagers with head coverings. Nigerian high school students are typically between 12 and 17 years old.
Security forces and community hunters intensified searches, sweeping forests where gangs often hide and setting up teams along major roads leading from the school. Kebbi Governor Nasir Idris visited the campus and pledged that authorities would work to rescue the girls. Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Waidi Shaibu, met soldiers after the attack and ordered “intelligence-driven operations and relentless day-and-night pursuit of the abductors,” an army statement said. “We must find these children. Act decisively and professionally on all intelligence. Success is not optional,” he added.
By Tuesday morning the dormitory and classroom block remained deserted. Families in Maga waiting for news expressed anger and frustration. Resident Abdulkarim Abdullahi, whose daughter and granddaughter, 13 and 10, were among those taken, said he heard gunfire from his home and was told the attackers arrived on many motorcycles.
Amina Hassan, the wife of the school vice principal Hassan Yakubu Makuku, said assailants broke into their home on campus and fatally shot her husband, who also served as chief security officer. She recalled three men entering, asking, “Are you Malam Hassan?” and telling him, “we are here to kill you.”
At least 1,500 students have been seized in the region since Boko Haram kidnapped 276 Chibok schoolgirls more than a decade ago, but bandit gangs now carry out many high-profile kidnappings to attract attention and ransom payments. Analysts and residents blame continuing insecurity on failures to prosecute known attackers and on corruption that hampers security forces’ access to weapons while enabling gangs to arm themselves.
“What gains traction is when it is strategic kidnapping, like school children,” said Oluwole Ojewale, a security analyst at the Institute for Security Studies, contrasting these headline-grabbing raids with abductions in markets or on roads that sometimes receive less sustained attention. Security forces and local communities continued searches in the days after the raid.