Nigerian gunmen strike again: kidnap 25 students and kill vice principal

Armed men launched an attack on a government girls’ boarding school in Kebbi State, Nigeria, early Monday, fatally shooting the vice principal and kidnapping 25 female students, according to police

Police spokesperson Nafiu Abubakar Kotarkoshi said the attackers, who were equipped with rifles and appeared to operate in a coordinated manner, invaded the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga around 4 a.m., exchanged gunfire with officers, then climbed over the school’s fence to abduct the students.
Kotarkoshi added that Vice Principal Hassan Yakubu Makuku was killed while trying to fend off the attackers, and another staff member was wounded by gunfire.

According to police, more tactical teams ,along with military personnel and community vigilantes ,have been dispatched to track the kidnappers across likely escape routes and nearby forested areas as part of the ongoing search-and-rescue effort.

Northwest Nigeria continues to experience frequent school kidnappings carried out by armed groups seeking ransom, despite government assurances of improved security. In 2014, Boko Haram abducted 270 schoolgirls from Chibok in the northeast. Although many of the girls escaped or were later freed, some remain missing.