![Security personnel in Plateau state on April 12, 2022 after houses were burned down during an attack by bandits and rebels [Photo by AFP]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zz9l5xhz0z0/aRsQM97SRxI/AAAAAAAABSs/lg8sTE9PjEQQBv-tMA-d7HmOjlIo8L5jQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1000105664.jpg "Security personnel in Plateau state on April 12, 2022 after houses were burned down during an attack by bandits and rebels [Photo by AFP]") |
| Security personnel in Plateau state on April 12, 2022 after houses were burned down during an attack by bandits and rebels [Photo by AFP] |
— KEBBI, NIGERIA
Islamist terrorists attacked a secondary school in northwest Nigeria on Sunday night, abducting at least 25 female students and killing a school official, according to local sources and police confirmation.
The assault targeted the Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, located in Kebbi State. Witnesses described a large group of assailants, armed with sophisticated weapons, who stormed the school after nightfall.
“They came in mass numbers at night, began shooting sporadically before they got access to the school,” a local source, Sulaiman Abdullahi, told journalist.
The school’s vice principal was killed in the attack, and several unidentified bodies were reportedly found on the school grounds, the source added.
In the aftermath, the area was secured by heavily armed security forces. By Monday morning, Nigerian Air Force jets were seen flying over the region, a common tactic in search operations.
CSP Nafiu Abubakar, a spokesperson for the Kebbi State Police Command, confirmed the incident.
This attack is the latest in a series of mass school abductions that have plagued Nigeria, a crisis that gained global notoriety with the 2014 Chibok kidnapping.
While the terrorist groups in the Nigeria are often referred to locally as “bandits,” they are heavily armed criminal factions that operate from forested hideouts. Their activities primarily include mass kidnappings for ransom, and village raids.