Instructor Fatally Shot and 25 Female Students Kidnapped in Gunbattle at Nigerian School
Weapon-carrying attackers have taken the life of an instructor and kidnapped no fewer than 25 pupils in an assault against a girls' secondary school in north-western Nigeria, police reports indicate.
The criminal group invaded the public educational institution for female students in Kebbi State's Maga area at roughly 4 in the morning local time on the start of the week, police confirmed.
The attackers "confronted officers on duty in a gun duel" before breaching the school's outer barrier and abducting the learners from their dormitory, according to a statement.
An educational worker was lost their life while safeguarding the students. Another staff member suffered bullet injuries and is now receiving treatment.
Eyewitnesses described a large group of attackers, known locally as bandits, who appeared discharging weapons intermittently to generate terror.
Local residents told reporters that the gunmen subsequently marched a number of girls into nearby bushland.
The law enforcement confirmed they had positioned "additional police tactical units, in coordination with armed forces and vigilante groups" to the area.
A systematic finding and recovery effort is underway in surrounding forests and believed flight corridors.
In recent years, educational institutions in Nigeria's north have regularly come under attack for weapon-carrying factions, who routinely perform seizures to request monetary settlements or leverage deals with the government.
The incident in Kebbi State underscores the continuing safety emergency troubling the locality, resulting in households in Maga in a situation of anxious fatigue as they wait and hope for their daughters' safe return.
Safety emergency in the northern regions of Nigeria has worsened considerably in the last several months, with schools bearing the brunt of the unrest.
Essential Information
- Weapon-carrying assailants stormed a girls' school in north-western Nigeria
- An instructor was fatally shot while protecting students
- At least 25 female students were taken from their living quarters
- Protection agencies have begun a saving effort in surrounding areas
- Learning center raids have escalated in regularity in northern Nigeria
