Teacher Killed and Two Dozen Pupils Seized in Gunbattle at Nigerian School
Weapon-carrying attackers have killed a teacher and abducted at least 25 students in an raid targeting a girls' secondary school in the northwestern part of Nigeria, police reports indicate.
The gang of attackers stormed the comprehensive secondary school for girls in Maga, Kebbi State at approximately 04:00 local time on the start of the week, officials stated.
The assailants "exchanged fire with security forces on duty in a firefight" before breaching the school's outer barrier and taking the pupils captive from their dormitory, authorities disclosed.
A school employee was fatally shot while defending the students. A second sustained gunshot wounds and is now receiving treatment.
Witnesses reported a considerable contingent of armed individuals, identified in the area as outlaw groups, who arrived firing sporadically to cause panic.
Area inhabitants informed journalists that the armed men then led a group of female students into surrounding rural areas.
The police said they had deployed "additional police tactical units, alongside military personnel and community security teams" to the area.
A coordinated search and rescue operation is underway in surrounding forests and potential getaway paths.
In the last several years, educational institutions in Nigeria's north have regularly come under attack for armed groups, who often carry out abductions to seek ransom payments or secure advantages in discussions with officials.
The assault in Kebbi State underscores the continuing safety emergency afflicting the area, resulting in households in Maga in a state of fearful exhaustion as they anticipate and pray for their daughters' safe return.
Safety emergency in the northern regions of Nigeria has intensified significantly in recent months, with learning centers suffering the most of the unrest.
Essential Information
- Weapon-carrying assailants attacked a school for young women in Nigeria's northwest
- An educator lost their life while protecting students
- At least 25 female students were taken from their living quarters
- Law enforcement have begun a saving effort in surrounding areas
- Educational institution assaults have escalated in regularity in Nigeria's northern regions
