One of the 25 schoolgirls abducted during an early-morning attack on a boarding school in northwestern Nigeria has escaped and returned home, the school principal confirmed on Tuesday. The kidnapping occurred around 4 a.m. on Monday when armed men stormed the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, located in Kebbi State’s Danko-Wasagu district. The gunmen, armed with what police described as “sophisticated weapons,” killed a staff member during the assault and fled with the girls into nearby forests.
School principal Musa Rabi Magaji told the Associated Press that one of the abducted girls managed to flee captivity and reached home safely late Monday. Another student, who had initially gone missing in the chaos but was not among the 25 confirmed abducted, also returned shortly after the attack. “One student is part of the 25 abducted, and the other returned earlier,” Magaji said. “They are safe and sound.”
Mass kidnappings of students have become tragically common in northern Nigeria, where armed groups—ranging from bandit gangs to extremist factions—operate across vast, poorly policed rural areas. Analysts say schools are targeted because abducting children guarantees national attention and often leads to ransom payments. No group has claimed responsibility for the Kebbi attack, but locals and security experts believe it was likely carried out by one of the heavily armed gangs made up largely of former herders who have taken up arms amid escalating clashes with farming communities. These gangs have increasingly turned to kidnappings-for-ransom as a lucrative criminal enterprise.
Residents and analysts attribute the worsening insecurity to corruption that hinders weapons procurement for security forces, weak prosecution of attackers, and porous borders that enable a steady flow of firearms into the region. Search-and-rescue operations are ongoing as security forces scour forests and suspected escape routes in hopes of recovering the remaining abducted students.
