Armed bandits stormed Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga town, Danko/Wasagu Local Government Area of Kebbi State around 4 a.m. local time on Monday, November 17, 2025. The assailants, armed with rifles and reportedly using coordinated tactics, scaled the perimeter fence to enter the school premises.
The bandits came in large numbers wielding sophisticated weapons, shooting sporadically before gaining access to the school. They engaged police officers in a gunfight before seizing the students.
The attack resulted in the death of Vice Principal Hassan Yakubu Makuku and the abduction of 25 female students. Vice Principal Hassan Yakubu Makuku was shot dead while resisting the attackers, and another staff member sustained gunshot injuries. According to the wife of the vice-principal who was killed, the attackers were mostly young men in military camouflage speaking the Fulani language.
Two students managed to avoid captivity through different circumstances. One student escaped during the raid in the minutes after the attack and was not abducted, while another student who was initially taken returned home late Monday evening, hours after the kidnapping. According to Principal Musa Rabi Magaji, both girls are safe and sound.
A video verified by the Associated Press 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.
Governor Nasir Idris visited Maga on Monday and held a closed-door meeting with security agencies, traditional rulers, and parents of the abducted students, assuring them that everything possible would be done to rescue their children. The Deputy Governor, Senator Umar Tafida, was also dispatched to assess the situation.
Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu conducted an operational tour of Kebbi State on Monday and directed troops of Operation FANSAN YANMA to conduct intelligence-driven operations and maintain relentless, day-and-night pursuit of the abductors. He emphasized, “We must find these children. Act decisively and professionally on all intelligence. Success is not optional.”
The Federal Government condemned the attack and vowed to swiftly rescue the abducted schoolgirls, with security and intelligence agencies coordinating rescue efforts.
A combined team of additional police tactical units, military personnel, and vigilantes has been deployed to the area and are currently combing the bandits’ routes and nearby forests. Air force jets were seen flying over the area by 8 a.m. on Monday after the attack, and the area was cordoned off by heavily armed security personnel.
The Kebbi school is close to conflict hot spots including Zamfara and Sokoto states, where several gangs are known to operate and hide out. Mass school kidnappings are especially common in northern Nigeria, with gangs of bandits often targeting schools, travelers, and remote villagers in kidnappings for ransoms.
This is the second mass school abduction in Kebbi in four years, following the June 2021 incident when bandits took more than 100 students and staff members from a government college. In that previous incident, students were released in batches over two years after parents raised ransom, with some students forcefully married off and returning with babies
Northwest Nigeria has witnessed repeated school abductions by armed gangs seeking ransom payments, despite government pledges to improve security in the region. The crisis dates back to the 2014 Chibok kidnapping when Islamist militant group Boko Haram abducted 270 schoolgirls, sparking the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign. While many escaped or were released, some have never been returned.
Nigeria’s northwest has for years been seeing a rise in heavily armed criminal gangs known as “bandits” who steal cattle, raid villages, kidnap and kill residents, and loot and burn homes, making it the region most affected by kidnappings.
As of now, 23 students remain in captivity, with security forces and local hunters intensifying their search operations across forests and major routes to secure their safe return.
