A teacher has been confirmed killed as gunmen in Nigeria raided a boarding school for girls in the northwest of the country, kidnapping 25 students.
The Nigerian police in a statement said the attackers stormed the compound of the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State, at around 3am on Monday after engaging a sentry in a gunfight and eventually killing him. Another guard at the school was wounded in the exchanges.
The police said the gunmen gained access to the school compound and forcibly took away students, all girls who were sleeping at the main hostel.
The suspected bandits later marched the kidnapped into the bush and disappeared into the night.
The police say they have launched a search and rescue operation combing the state’s forest areas where the bandits may be hiding.
The abductions brings back memories of the kidnapping of over 200 girls in a boarding school in Chibok in Borno State in 2014 and attracted inernational campaign for their freedom from Boko Haram captivity.
In recent years such kidnappings are by armed gangs who demand ransoms for the release of their victims.
The last abduction of a large number of students took place at a school in Kuriga, Kaduna State in March 2024.
WN/as/APA