Twenty schoolgirls abducted last week from a boarding school in northwestern Nigeria’s Kebbi state have been freed, officials said, as Nigeria faces a wave of mass kidnappings in recent days.
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu welcomed their release on Tuesday.
“I am relieved that all 24 girls have been identified,” the president said in a statement from his special assistant, Bayo Onanuga. “Now we urgently need to get more shoes into vulnerable areas to prevent further kidnappings.”
Last Monday, armed robbers attacked the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga town. State authorities said 25 girls were kidnapped and the school’s vice principal was killed. The school’s principal told The Associated Press last week that one of the abducted girls managed to escape.
On November 21, hundreds of students were kidnapped from a Catholic school in Niger State, Nigeria.
President Onanuga said “terrorists” took the girls soon after a military detachment left the area. Kebbi State Governor Nasir Idris called for an investigation into who authorized the troop withdrawal. Local government officials said troops were deployed near the school to provide security after information surfaced about a possible attack.
Similar kidnappings by armed groups have targeted vulnerable civilians in northwestern Nigeria in recent days.
In Kwara state, police launched a search-and-rescue operation in which they abducted 10 people, including five children, after gunmen believed to be nomads attacked a community in Isapa on Monday night and opened fire sporadically, authorities said.
Two people were killed in an armed attack on a church in the state last Wednesday. Officials said several other people were abducted, including a pastor.
Also on Friday in neighboring north-central Niger state, armed robbers kidnapped more than 300 students and a dozen teachers from St. Mary’s Private Catholic School. According to the Christian Association of Nigeria, 50 of these students managed to escape and have since returned to their families.
President Tinubu has called for a complete cordon in the Kwara forest following the recent kidnapping incident. He also ordered the Air Force to increase air surveillance across forests where the government believes terrorists are hiding.
Presidential Spokesperson Sunday Dare said the military had been instructed to maintain 24-hour surveillance. He said the order also applied to Kebbi and Niger states. He called on the community to provide timely information on “strange movements and activities” to assist security forces.
Nigeria faces conflicts between farmers and herders over access to resources, as well as religiously motivated attacks and other violent tensions related to communal and ethnic tensions.
US President Donald Trump recently shared controversial allegations of a “genocide” of Christians by Islamic militants in Nigeria. But experts say the reality on the ground is more complex, with both Christians and Muslims under attack from Islamic extremists.
