Release of Abducted Kebbi Schoolgirls
Twenty-four Nigerian schoolgirls who were abducted from the Government Girls Comprehensive Senior Secondary School (GGCSS) in Kebbi State on November 17 have been released. This release occurred over a week after the initial incident, which also resulted in the death of one staff member. A total of 25 students were initially taken, with one managing to escape shortly after the abduction.
President Bola Tinubu commended the security forces for their actions following the Kebbi incident. The specific details surrounding the girls' release have not been publicly clarified. A presidential adviser confirmed the accountability of all the girls from the Kebbi school and noted that this event was followed by similar abductions in two other Nigerian states.
Government Response and Security Measures
In light of the ongoing security challenges, President Tinubu announced plans to deploy additional personnel to vulnerable areas to mitigate future kidnapping incidents. He also conveyed via a post on X that the Nigerian Air Force would maintain continuous surveillance over remote regions, coordinating with ground units to identify and disrupt criminal elements.
Broader Context of Abductions
Nigeria has faced a persistent issue of school abductions, with over 1,500 children reportedly taken from schools since 2014, including the widely reported Chibok mass abduction.
A separate, more recent incident involved the abduction of approximately 300 children and staff from St Mary's School, a Catholic boarding school in Nigeria's Niger state, on a Friday. As of reporting, 50 individuals from St Mary's have escaped, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria, but at least 250 remain unaccounted for. A leading Catholic cleric in the region has expressed that the Nigerian government's efforts to rescue those still missing are not perceived as meaningful.
This incident at St Mary's was the third abduction affecting Nigeria within a single week, leading President Tinubu to cancel his trip to the G20 summit in South Africa to focus on the domestic crisis.
International Call to Action
Gordon Brown, the UN education envoy and former UK prime minister, called upon the international community to provide comprehensive support for efforts to secure the return of the abducted children. He underscored the necessity of ensuring Nigerian schools are secure learning environments, protected from criminal exploitation.