Student escapes as authorities search for 24 other girls abducted in
Nigeria
[November 19, 2025]
By CHINEDU ASADU and TUNDE OMOLEHIN
MAGA, Nigeria (AP) — A schoolgirl who was abducted with 24 others from a
dormitory in northwestern Nigeria has escaped and is safe, the school's
principal told The Associated Press on Tuesday, as hunters joined
security forces in the search for the missing students in forests close
to the school.
The girls were kidnapped before dawn on Monday, when gunmen attacked the
dorm at the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Kebbi
state's Maga town. Local police said the gunmen scaled the fence to
enter the school premises and exchanged gunfire with police officers
before seizing the girls and killing a staff member.
No group has claimed responsibility for taking the girls, but analysts
and locals say gangs of bandits often target schools, travelers and
remote villagers in kidnappings for ransoms. Authorities say the bandits
are mostly former herders who have taken up arms against farming
communities after clashes between them over strained resources.
Mass school kidnappings are especially common in northern Nigeria, and
the Kebbi school is close to conflict hot spots including Zamfara and
Sokoto states, where several gangs are known to operate and hide out.
The student who escaped arrived home late Monday, hours after the
kidnapping, according to the school principal Musa Rabi Magaji. Another
student was able to escape the gunmen in the minutes after the raid and
was not abducted, the principal told AP.
“They are safe and sound,” Magaji said.
A video verified by AP shows the two schoolgirls, who appear to be in
their early teens, lost in thought and surrounded by family and other
villagers, with hijabs covering their heads. High schoolers in Nigeria
are usually aged between 12 and 17.
Intensified rescue efforts
Security forces and hunters, meanwhile, have intensified efforts to find
and rescue the others, local officials said. Security teams swept nearby
forests where gangs often hide while others were deployed along major
roads leading to the school.
Kebbi Gov. Nasir Idris visited the school on Monday and assured of
efforts to rescue the girls, and Nigeria's Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen.
Waidi Shaibu met with soldiers in the hours after the attack and
directed “intelligence-driven operations and relentless day-and-night
pursuit of the abductors,” according to an army statement.
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A general view of the school from which school children were
kidnapped by gunmen in Kebbi, Nigeria, Monday, Nov 17, 2025. (AP
Photo/Deeni Jibo)
“We must find these children. Act decisively and professionally on
all intelligence. Success is not optional,” the army chief said.
Families recount predawn attack
By Tuesday morning, the dorm and the classroom block — a walking
distance apart — were deserted. In Maga, families waiting for news
of their children's freedom expressed anger and frustration.
Resident Abdulkarim Abdullahi, whose daughter and granddaughter —
aged 13 and 10, respectively — were among the kidnapped children,
said he overheard the noise from his house.
“I was at home when I suddenly heard gunshots from the school. We
were told that the attackers entered the school with many
motorcycles,” said Abdullahi.
Amina Hassan, wife of the school vice principal Hassan Yakubu Makuku,
said the assailants broke into their house, which is on the school
premises, and fatally shot her husband. He was also the school's
chief security officer.
“Three of them entered and asked my husband, ‘Are you Malam Hassan?’
and he responded, ‘Yes, I am.’ They told him that we are here to
kill you,” she told the AP.
School abductions are a strategy to draw attention
At least 1,500 students have been seized in the region since Boko
Haram jihadi extremists seized 276 Chibok schoolgirls over a decade
ago. But bandits are also active in the region, and analysts say
gangs often target schools to gain attention.
Analysts and residents blame the insecurity on a failure to
prosecute known attackers, and the rampant corruption that limits
weapons supplies to security forces while ensuring a steady supply
to the gangs.
“Let’s say people have been kidnapped in the markets — it doesn’t go
far, (or) if people have been kidnapped on the road — it doesn’t go
far,” said Oluwole Ojewale, a security analyst at the Institute for
Security Studies. “What gains traction is when (it is) strategic
kidnapping, like school children.”
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Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria.
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