Twenty-five schoolgirls were abducted by armed men on Sunday night in Kebbi State, in northwestern Nigeria, Africa's most populous country plagued by insecurity where kidnappings for ransom are frequent.

This case is a stark reminder of the 2014 abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State, in the northeast of the country, by the jihadist group Boko Haram, which sparked an international campaign called "Bring Back Our Girls." Since then, mass abductions have remained a serious concern in Nigeria.

"A gang of bandits equipped with sophisticated weapons, firing sporadically, stormed the Maga Public Secondary School for Girls," located in the Danko district of Kebbi State, police said in a statement Monday, adding that "25 students" were kidnapped.

The police explained that they had engaged in "an armed duel" with the assailants, but that the latter "had already scaled the school fence and abducted twenty-five students from their dormitory" to take them "to an unknown destination".

The deputy headmaster of the school, Hassan Makuku, was killed by the criminals while a staff member, Ali Shehu, was injured in the hand.

Kebbi police also stated that a team comprised of police officers, soldiers, and members of civilian militias has been deployed. They are "combing the routes taken by the bandits and the nearby forest" in order to "rescue the abducted students and attempt to arrest the perpetrators of this heinous act."

This is the second mass abduction of students in Kebbi in four years. In 2021, bandits kidnapped more than 100 students and some staff members from the Federal Government College (FGC) in Yauri, killing a police officer and injuring a teacher.

The students were gradually released over the past two years. Some of the students were forced into marriage and returned with babies.

- Bandits and jihadists -

For years, the central and northwestern states of Nigeria have been terrorized by criminal gangs referred to as "bandits" by the authorities.

The violence, which was originally linked to conflicts over land and water rights between herders and farmers, has turned into clashes linked to organized crime, with gangs taking control of rural communities where the government has little or no presence.

Since 2011, arms trafficking has intensified and the Sahel as a whole has descended into chaos.

The recent emergence of the Lakurawa jihadist group in the northwest has increased insecurity in this border region with Niger.

In 2024, more than 130 children were abducted from their school in Kuriga, Kaduna State (northwest).

According to an intelligence report dated Monday and seen by AFP, "Kebbi State experienced a record number of crimes, including kidnappings, in November," with gangs hiding in the forest of neighboring Zamfara State, which allows them "to evade military forces and launch attacks with minimal risk."

The school where the attack took place is located not far from this forest straddling the states of Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi and Niger, from where they launch attacks against villages.

Kebbi State is under pressure from bandits on the border with neighboring Zamfara State and from Lakurawa in its western part.