Instructor Fatally Shot and 25 Female Students Kidnapped in Firefight at Nigerian School
Armed assailants have killed a teacher and seized a minimum of 25 learners in an raid targeting a female high school in the northwestern part of Nigeria, according to police.
The gang of attackers breached the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in the Maga locality within Kebbi State at around 4 AM local time on the beginning of the work week, police confirmed.
The armed individuals "confronted officers on duty in a firefight" before breaching the school's outer barrier and abducting the learners from their dormitory, an official report indicated.
A school employee was killed while trying to protect the students. An additional employee received firearm injuries and is now being treated medically.
Eyewitnesses described a considerable contingent of armed individuals, referred to locally as criminal elements, who appeared discharging weapons intermittently to cause panic.
Local residents informed journalists that the armed men then led a contingent of young women into nearby bushland.
The police said they had deployed "additional police tactical units, alongside military personnel and local protection units" to the area.
A coordinated search and rescue operation is currently ongoing in nearby woodlands and potential getaway paths.
In the past few years, educational institutions in Nigeria's north have regularly come under attack for weapon-carrying factions, who routinely perform seizures to demand financial compensation or leverage deals with the government.
The incident in Kebbi State highlights the persistent security crisis afflicting the area, causing relatives in Maga in a state of fearful exhaustion as they anticipate and pray for their young ones' unharmed reappearance.
Protection challenge in Nigeria's northern territories has worsened considerably in recent months, with educational institutions suffering the most of the violence.
Key Points
- Armed attackers attacked a school for young women in Nigeria's northwest
- One teacher was killed while defending pupils
- A minimum of 25 young women were taken from their living quarters
- Security forces have launched a rescue operation in surrounding areas
- Educational institution assaults have escalated in regularity in the northern part of the country