Abuja, Nigeria – Two of the 25 students and teachers abducted on Monday from a girls’ boarding school in Kebbi State
, northwest Nigeria, have managed to escape, a local official told the BBC.
Husseini Aliyu, a member of the Danko Wasago municipal council, said the two girls had run away.
While their kidnappers were leading them to wooded areas,
they crossed agricultural fields until they managed to reach safety.
He added that the two girls “have now returned and are safe.”
But one of them needs to receive medical treatment,
because she was injured in her leg during the escape.
Attack and kidnapping
The attack occurred before dawn on Monday,
when gunmen stormed the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School.
In the town of Maga, they use motorcycles to quickly reach the school site.
According to local officials, the attackers entered through the school walls.
They met with police forces in a shootout before storming
the girls’ dormitories and kidnapping about 25 girls.
Reports also indicated that two members of the school staff were killed;
one of them a teacher who tried to protect the female students before he was assassinated.
Another member of the security detail later died in the hospital from his injuries.
Search and rescue efforts
Security forces, supported by volunteers, launched extensive
search operations in the surrounding forests and potential escape routes.
This is an attempt to recover the kidnapped schoolgirls.
The Nigerian army chief of staff, Major General Wadie Shaibu,
stressed the need for the pursuit to continue around the clock.
He said, “We must find these children… Success is not an option.”
The governor of Kebbi also visited the school, and authorities pledged to make every effort to ensure the students’ safe return.
Record of kidnappings in northern Nigeria
This is not the first incident of its kind; the abduction of schoolgirls
from boarding schools is a recurring phenomenon in northern Nigeria.
Where armed gangs, known locally as “bandits,” are active.
The students are kidnapped for ransom or to achieve other gains.
Since the 2014 kidnapping of 276 girls from
a Chibok school by Boko Haram,
More than 1,500 cases of kidnapping of students and teachers
have been recorded in various areas of northern Nigeria.
