A pre-dawn assault on a girls’ boarding school in northwestern Nigeria has once again exposed the country’s severe security vulnerabilities, with armed men abducting 25 students and killing at least one staff member. The gunmen struck around 4 a.m. on Monday in Maga, a community in Kebbi state’s Danko-Wasagu area, overwhelming the school’s guards after a brief exchange of gunfire. According to police spokesperson Nafi’u Abubakar Kotarkoshi, the attackers carried “sophisticated weapons” and escaped with the students into the surrounding forests, prompting a large-scale search-and-rescue operation by security forces. Residents, however, fear the toll is higher—one father whose daughter and granddaughter were taken said the assailants killed two people, first targeting a teacher’s residence before shooting a guard.
No group has claimed responsibility, and authorities have yet to determine the motive behind the latest school abduction. Nigeria’s northwestern region has, for years, been plagued by violent banditry, with loosely organised armed groups routinely raiding villages, ambushing highways, and kidnapping civilians for ransom. Unlike Boko Haram or the Islamic State West Africa Province—whose violence is ideologically driven—these groups operate as criminal enterprises, using abductions to raise money, control territory, and terrorise local populations in mineral-rich but thinly policed areas.
The attack comes against the grim backdrop of Nigeria’s long-running crisis of mass kidnappings targeting schoolchildren. The 2014 Chibok abduction, in which Boko Haram seized 276 girls from a school in Borno state, marked a turning point. It signalled to armed groups across the region that school raids could generate massive leverage, international attention, and significant ransom payouts. More than a decade later, dozens of the Chibok girls remain missing, and the episode continues to cast a long shadow over education in northern Nigeria.
Since that watershed moment, at least 1,500 students have been kidnapped across the country. Bandits—now emboldened by years of impunity—have turned mass abductions into a lucrative business model, expanding their operations as state security forces struggle to maintain control. The problem is compounded by Nigeria’s vast ungoverned spaces, limited policing capacity, and the failure to dismantle major kidnapping networks. Even when rescued, victims recount deep psychological trauma, long detentions, and in some cases forced marriages or recruitment into criminal groups.
Despite a decline in school raids in recent years—thanks to heightened security measures and temporary closures in high-risk areas—the latest abduction underscores the fragility of those gains. Many state governments fortified schools, deployed local security outfits, and even shut down entire districts when threats rose. But Monday’s attack shows that gaps remain, and that armed groups continue to exploit the region’s security vacuum.
For communities in northern Nigeria, the fear that began in 2014 has not faded. Each new incident reopens wounds from Chibok, Kankara, Jangebe, Kaduna, and countless lesser-known attacks. As authorities search for the missing girls and families brace for news, the country is once again confronting a familiar and deeply painful question: how long can children continue to risk their lives simply by going to school?
