25 Schoolgirls Abducted in Kebbi Attack as Vice-Principal Is Killed

Overview

• Gunmen breached the Government Girls Comprehensive Senior Secondary School in Kebbi around 4 a.m., firing sporadically with what police called sophisticated weapons.
• Twenty-five female students were taken after the attackers jumped the school fence, the vice-principal was shot dead, and a security guard was injured.
• Police said tactical units responded and are combing likely escape routes and nearby forest areas, with no rescues announced so far.
• Families remain without information on the girls’ whereabouts or motive, and an NGO reported the victims were Christian students taken as they slept, a detail not confirmed by authorities.
• This is the second mass school abduction in Kebbi in four years, echoing a wider regional trend in which criminal groups labeled as bandits seize students for ransom, with past victims released in groups and some forced into marriage.