ABUJA, Nigeria — Kebbi schoolgirls kidnapping: Gunmen abducted 25 students in a raid that began before dawn on a girls’ boarding school in Maga, Kebbi state, police said, killing one staff member and injuring another as guards engaged them in gunfire. After the attack, which occurred around 4 a.m. Monday, Nov. 17, 2025, authorities scoured forests near the scene of the blast searching for survivors in what became a search-and-rescue mission.
The attackers, who are “armed with sophisticated weapons,” forced the girls out of their dormitories while the gun battle was underway, state police spokesman Nafi’u Abubakar Kotarkoshi said.
The Maga school attack is being investigated by the authorities in the Danko-Wasagu area as combined security forces search for possible escape routes, Reuters said. No group has claimed responsibility.
The raid mirrors previous mass kidnappings that have disrupted schooling across northern Nigeria. Similarly, Kebbi itself had a major school attack in 2021 at the Federal Government College Birnin Yauri, where dozens were abducted and dragged out for months to await rescue, as contemporaneous reporting by Reuters has it.
In March 2024, gunmen kidnapped more than 200 pupils in Kuriga, Kaduna State; the army later released 137 hostages in Zamfara State, according to a Reuters report on the rescue. The case highlighted the extent and persistence of school kidnappings.
Ransom demands have often followed such attacks, even as officials deny paying ransoms. Kidnappers demanded 1 billion naira in the Kuriga crisis, local officials said in another Reuters dispatch from March 2024.
In Monday’s attack in Kebbi, police said a “combined team is presently combing suspected escape routes and closing.”Forest to track down the kidnap victims and bring the perpetrators to book. Authorities did not immediately identify the victims or say if any hostages had been found.
Authorities urged residents to provide credible information to the security agencies as the manhunt continues. Those with information about the kidnapping of the Kebbi schoolgirls have been asked to contact police on hotline numbers.
