ABUJA (Realist English). All 24 schoolgirls abducted last week from a secondary school in northwestern Nigeria have been rescued, President Bola Tinubu announced on Tuesday, amid a new wave of mass kidnappings that has shaken several northern states.
Twenty-five students were seized on 17 November from the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State. One escaped the same day. The remaining 24 have now been recovered, the presidency said, without providing details of the rescue operation.
“I am relieved that all the girls have been accounted for,” Tinubu said. “We must urgently deploy more boots on the ground in vulnerable areas to avert further incidents.”
The abduction was part of a wider series of attacks across northern Nigeria. On Friday, gunmen stormed Saint Mary’s School in Niger State, kidnapping more than 300 students and staff; at least 50 have since escaped.
Musa Rabi Magaji, principal of the school in Kebbi, confirmed that all rescued students remain in government custody for medical checks. Families were asked to await official updates. One father, Abdulkarim Abdullahi, whose two daughters were kidnapped, said he was notified that the girls were being transferred to the state capital, Birnin Kebbi. “These past days have been incredibly hard,” he said. “I just want to see them safe.”
Kidnappings also continued elsewhere on Tuesday, as police reported 10 people abducted in Kwara State near Eruku — the site of a deadly church attack last week in which 38 worshippers were taken hostage. They have since been freed, officials said.
Although no group has claimed responsibility, authorities blame heavily armed bandit networks that have expanded their operations across the north. These groups routinely raid schools, villages and highways, using mass kidnappings for ransom to dominate remote areas with limited state presence. Security analysts say many of the gunmen are former herders who armed themselves after conflicts with farming communities over land and water.
School abductions have become a defining feature of insecurity in Africa’s largest country. More than 1,500 Nigerian students have been kidnapped since the infamous Chibok attack in 2014, most released only after ransom payments.
The latest spike in violence comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has alleged that Nigerian Christians face persecution — claims that overlook the fact that both Christian and Muslim communities are targeted by the same criminal networks.