On Friday, gunmen raided the Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School in the Askira-Uba local government area of Borno State, Nigeria, abducting dozens of students during class. The attack occurred around 9 a.m. (08:00 GMT), according to reports from Reuters and AFP.
A local resident near the school, Ubaidallah Hasaan, said the suspected insurgents stormed the school and took many students away. A teacher at the school recounted that the armed attackers arrived on motorcycles. “Although some students escaped into the bush, I can say that many were taken away,” the teacher said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but signs point to the characteristic tactics of the Boko Haram group. Local lawmaker Midala Usman Balami called the attack “heartbreaking” and urged the government to act swiftly.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, is grappling with a 17-year armed insurgency. Armed groups, including Boko Haram, frequently use kidnapping as a key tactic, most notably the 2014 abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls in Chibok.
Mass kidnappings have become common in Nigeria, often carried out by gangs and armed groups for quick ransom, especially in rural areas where government presence is thin. Just a few weeks ago, gunmen raided an orphanage and abducted at least 23 children in Lokoja, the capital of Kogi State.
Borno State and neighboring areas regularly face attacks on schools and communities despite ongoing military campaigns, raising concerns about security gaps in rural regions. The town of Mussa is near the Sambisa Forest, a long-time stronghold of insurgent groups that have fueled violence in northeastern Nigeria for more than a decade.
In a separate incident on the same Friday, gunmen abducted students from the Baptist Nursery and Primary School in Oyo State, southwestern Nigeria. State authorities ordered the closure of schools in the area while police launched a manhunt for the perpetrators.
While violence has eased compared to the peak of Nigeria’s insurgency that began in 2009, analysts warn of a rising risk of attacks from 2025 onward, particularly in rural areas beyond government control. Nigerian writer and civil servant Gimba Kakanda told Al Jazeera that the expansion of these groups’ operational territory is significant because “insurgencies are sustained not only by ideology, but also by terrain, supply routes, local economies, and the ability to move troops through spaces where the state is weak or absent.”
