ABUJA — Two dozen schoolgirls who were kidnapped from a boarding school in Nigeria’s northwestern Kebbi state last week have been freed, according to officials, as the country grapples with a wave of mass abductions in recent days.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu welcomed their release on Tuesday.
“I am relieved that all the 24 girls have been accounted for,” the president said in a statement from his special adviser Bayo Onanuga. “Now, we must put as a matter of urgency more boots on the ground in the vulnerable areas to avert further incidents of kidnapping.”
Last Monday, armed bandits stormed 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.
Presidential adviser Onanuga said “terrorists” took the girls just moments after a military detachment left the area. Kebbi Gov. Nasir Idris called for an investigation into who authorized the withdrawal of the military. The armed forces were mobilized near the school for security after intelligence surfaced about a likely attack, a regional government official said.
Northwest Nigeria has seen a spate of similar kidnappings by armed groups in recent days, targeting vulnerable civilian populations.
In Kwara state, police have launched a search and rescue operation for 10 people - including five children - who were abducted on Monday evening after armed men suspected to be herders stormed the Isapa community and began shooting sporadically, authorities said.
Last week on Wednesday, the state saw an armed attack on a church that left two people dead. Several others, including the pastor, were abducted, officials said.
And in neighboring north-central Niger State, armed bandits abducted more than 300 students and a dozen teachers from St. Mary’s Private Catholic School on Friday. Fifty of those students have since returned to their families after managing to escape, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria.
President Tinubu has called for a complete security cordon over the forests in Kwara following the recent kidnappings. He also has ordered the air force to expand air surveillance across the forest where the government believes terrorists are hiding.
Presidential spokesman Sunday Dare said the armed forces are instructed to conduct surveillance around the clock. The order, he said, also applies to Kebbi and Niger states. He urged communities to provide timely information about “strange movements and activities” to help security forces.
Nigeria has been facing religiously motivated attacks and other violent tensions related to communal and ethnic tensions, along with disputes between farmers and herders over access to resources.
US President Donald Trump has recently shared disputed allegations of a “mass slaughter” of Christians by Islamist insurgents in Nigeria. But experts say the reality on the ground is more complex, with both Christians and Muslims coming under attack by the insurgents. — CNN
