Twenty-four schoolgirls have been released in nigeria, more than a week after being abducted from their school in Kebbi State, officials confirmed Monday.The release comes amid a surge in school kidnappings across the contry, raising concerns about the safety of students and prompting increased security measures.
The recent abductions, including the Kebbi State incident and the mass kidnapping of over 300 children and staff from St. Mary’s School in Niger State on Friday, have triggered a national crisis. While fifty of those abducted in Niger State have escaped, at least 250 remain missing. These incidents follow a disturbing pattern of school abductions in Nigeria, with more than 1,500 children taken since 2014, including the infamous mass abduction of 276 girls from Chibok. The Kebbi State kidnapping also sparked copycat incidents in two other Nigerian states.
President Bola Tinubu has responded to the crisis by cancelling a trip to the G20 summit to focus on securing the release of the abducted students. He has ordered the deployment of more personnel to “vulnerable areas to avert further incidents of kidnapping” and directed the Air Force to maintain continuous surveillance over remote regions, coordinating with ground units to “effectively identify, isolate, disrupt, and neutralise all hostile elements.”
UN education envoy Gordon Brown has urged the international community to support the rescue efforts, stating, “It’s also incumbent on us to ensure that Nigerian schools are safe spaces for learning, not spaces where children can be plucked from their classroom for criminal profit.” However, the main Catholic cleric in the region has criticized the government’s response, telling the BBC that it is making “no meaningful effort” to rescue those still missing.
