Gunmen attacked a girls’ school in northwestern Nigeria and abducted 25 students, the police said on Monday.
The vice principal of the boarding school in Maga, a town in the state of Kebbi, was killed in the attack, according to a teacher at the school who spoke to The New York Times by phone. Malam Hassan Makaku, the vice principal, was shot after he tried to block the door to a girls’ dormitory with his body, said the teacher, who requested anonymity to avoid repercussions.
A rescue mission has been launched by a team of police officers and military forces, together with local volunteers, the police said in a statement.
The gunmen stormed the school for more than 20 minutes, without any intervention from security forces. There is a security checkpoint not far from the school.
The apparent failure of security presented a less-heroic picture of the security forces’ response to the kidnapping than what was described in the police statement.
“The police tactical units deployed in the school engaged them into a gun duel,” read the statement, which was signed by Nafiu Abubakar Kotarkoshi, a police public relations officer in Kebbi. “Unfortunately, the suspected bandits had already scaled through the fence.”
Mubarak Adam, 57, a community leader who lives near the school, said he was awake a few minutes after 4 a.m., waiting for the Muslim prayer at dawn, when he heard the attackers arrive.
“They came on motorcycles and in cars, firing sporadically with sophisticated weapons to create panic,” he said. “They headed straight for the school.”
Mr. Adam said he immediately told his family to hide but did not panic. “I knew they came for the school because there had been a report earlier that the bandits were targeting it,” he said. It was unclear where the report had originated.
The attack in Maga echoed the kidnapping of the Chibok girls, who were taken from their dormitory in northeastern Nigeria by members of the terrorist group Boko Haram in 2014. Some of those girls escaped. Some were released after several years in captivity and negotiations with their abductors. Many are still being held hostage.
Since that mass kidnapping, many more have unfolded in Nigeria, particularly in the northeast and northwest of the country. Thousands of Nigerians are killed in violent attacks each year, data show.
The abduction on Monday comes as Nigeria faces intense scrutiny over what President Trump has called an “existential threat” to the country’s Christians. There are more than 90 million Christians in Nigeria, but there is no evidence to suggest that the widespread violence in the country affects Christians more than any other group.
The girls abducted from the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga are all Muslim, the teacher said.
Yet, the idea that Christians are being persecuted in Nigeria has found recent support among politicians and celebrities in the United States. Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, introduced legislation that he said would protect Christians there. The comedian Bill Maher has called it an attempt at “genocide.” The rapper Nicki Minaj praised Mr. Trump for his comments on the plight of Nigerian Christians, and later appeared to confirm reports that she was working on the issue with Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Many Nigerians hope that the attention from U.S. officials will prompt their own government to take more action against the violence. Nigerian officials appeared aware of the growing crises.
“We assure Nigerians that strengthening internal security remains a top priority,” said Mohammed Idris, Nigeria’s minister of information, in a statement released soon after the Maga attack was reported.
“The Federal Government is recalibrating the nation’s military, policing and intelligence capabilities to more effectively prevent these attacks and respond with greater speed and precision whenever threats arise.”
Ismail Alfa contributed reporting.
Ruth Maclean is the West Africa bureau chief for The Times, covering 25 countries including Nigeria, Congo, the countries in the Sahel region as well as Central Africa.
The post 25 Girls Abducted From School in Nigeria appeared first on New York Times.
