Nigerian authorities were searching Monday for 25 students who were abducted from a girls’ secondary school by a group of armed assailants during the overnight hours in the country’s northwestern Kebbi state. The school’s vice principal was killed in the attack, officials said.
Bello Mohammed Matawalle, Nigeria’s defense minister, said the nighttime attack occurred at the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in the town of Maga. The government “has directed that the state’s security apparatus swing into immediate action to ensure the abducted students are released unharmed,” he said.
In a statement shared on social media, the Nigeria Police Force said the attackers — whom they referred to as a “gang of armed bandits” — stormed the school, discharging sporadic gunfire, and kidnapped the girls, who had been in their sleeping quarters. Vice Principal Malam Hassan Yakubu Makuku was killed, and another person suffered an injury to their right hand, the statement said.
Authorities were alerted to the attack about 4 a.m. local time, according to the statement, which was attributed to Nafiu Abubakar Kotarkoshi, a public relations officer with the Kebbi State Command. Military personnel have been deployed in a search-and-rescue operation, he said. Officials did not disclose whether there were any suspects.
Mohammed Idris, Nigeria’s minister of information and national orientation, said in a statement posted on social media that the government “expresses deep concern and solidarity with the families of the female students.”
“We share in their pain and are firmly committed to bringing the girls home safely,” he said.
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