Nigeria’s Army Chief of Staff has ordered troops to conduct searches “Day and Night” To find 25 high school girls who were abducted from Sunday to Monday night in Kebbi State. “We need to find these children (…) Success is not optional »On Monday, General Waidi launched Shaibu in front of troops deployed in the state in the northwest of the country.
A group of armed men abducted 25 high school students from Maga Girls’ School the night before and killed the school’s deputy principal, Hassan Makuku. In the middle of the night, his wife woke up after hearing a noise from outside the house. Moments later, armed men barged into their home in Maga, Kebbi State. “We started fighting with them and one of them took out his gun and shot my husband, then he took me by the hand and dragged me out of the house.”He testified on the Nigerian television channel Channel.
“I was still screaming when my daughter came, they left me and took her away”He said, adding that his daughter was eventually able to escape because the attackers kidnapped the high school girls.
A drama reminiscent of other mass kidnappings
This is the second student abduction incident in KB in four years. In 2021, bandits abducted over 100 students and some staff of the Federal Government College, Yauri. Fewer students have been released in the last two years. Some students were forced into marriage and returned with children.
In Nigeria, West Africa’s most populous country, plagued by insecurity, mass kidnappings are common, especially since Boko Haram jihadists abducted nearly 300 schoolgirls in Chibo, northeast in 2014.
Kebbi State borders the jihadist threat from Niger and is caught in the crossfire “Bandit”Criminal gangs that loot villages, extort ransoms, kidnap and kill residents across the country’s north. Many of them operate from camps set up in the Zamfara forest, which are not far from Maga, spread across Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi and Niger states, from where they launch attacks against villages.
“We give our word that we will do everything in our power to ensure that these children are protected.”Kebbi Governor Nasir Idris told the Nigerian Press in Maga on Monday evening.
“Government (…) Ordered the security forces to intervene immediately to ensure the release of the abducted students.”For his part the Minister of Defense, Bello Matawalle declared, calling on the residents “keep calm”.