Mass Abduction Rocks Northwest Nigeria School
Armed militants stormed a secondary school in Nigeria's northwest Kebbi State early Monday morning, abducting 25 schoolgirls in the latest attack targeting educational institutions. The assailants scaled the fence of Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga town around 3:30 am, killing the vice-principal before taking the students captive.
Major General Waidi Shaibu, Nigeria's newly appointed army chief, immediately deployed troops to the area with strict orders to rescue the girls. "You must continue day and night fighting. We must find these children," Shaibu told soldiers on Monday, urging them to "leave no stone unturned" in their search operation.
US Political Firestorm Ignites
The kidnapping has drawn international attention, particularly from American political circles. US House Representative Riley Moore used the incident to amplify former President Donald Trump's claims about Christian persecution in Nigeria, despite Kebbi police confirming all abducted students were Muslim.
Moore asserted on social media platform X that the attack occurred in "a Christian enclave in Northern Nigeria," urging his followers to pray for the 25 girls. This comes weeks after Trump claimed he asked the Pentagon to draft potential intervention plans in Nigeria, alleging radical Islamists were "killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers."
The Nigerian government has consistently rejected this narrative, emphasizing that the country's multiple security crises have resulted in more Muslim casualties. Conflicts across Nigeria, including jihadist insurgencies, typically affect both Christian and Muslim communities indiscriminately.
Survivor Accounts Reveal Attack Brutality
Amina Hassan, widow of murdered vice-principal Hassan Makuku, provided harrowing details to Nigerian television. She described hearing noises outside their residence at 3:30 am and attempting to wake her husband before gunmen forced their way inside.
"We started struggling with them and one of them pulled out his gun and shot my husband," Hassan recounted. "Then he dragged me by my hand outside the house and I told them to leave me alone, that I would not go with them since they have killed the father of my children."
Her daughter initially faced abduction but managed to escape into nearby bushes when the attackers became distracted by the larger group of schoolgirls.
Kebbi's Persistent Security Challenges
This marks the second mass school abduction in Kebbi within four years. In June 2021, bandits kidnapped over 100 students and staff from a government college in the state. Those victims were released in batches over two years following ransom payments by families, with some female students returning with babies after being forced into marriages.
Kebbi State faces dual security threats: jihadist infiltration from neighboring Niger and criminal gangs who systematically loot villages while engaging in ransom kidnappings across northern Nigeria. The region's vulnerability continues despite military operations targeting armed groups.
As search operations intensify for the 25 missing schoolgirls, the incident highlights Nigeria's enduring struggle with school abductions that began with Boko Haram's 2014 kidnapping of 276 Chibok girls, which sparked global condemnation and the #BringBackOurGirls movement.
