The latest insurgent attack in Kebbi State affected Government Girls Comprehensive Senior Secondary School (GGCSS) Maga in Danko/Wasagu Local Government Area of Kebbi State, where a notorious terrorist group stormed the school premises, abducting 25 students and killing the Vice Principal, Malam Hassan Yakubu Makuku.

It is no news that major bandits and insurgent groups like Boko Haram and the ISWAP often target vulnerable gatherings to carry out attacks, with secondary schools garnering a disturbing number of attacks, though the specific reasons and motives behind these school attacks have yet to be fully identified.

In this article, TVC News compiled a series of major school attacks carried out by insurgent groups.

Dapchi Abduction

As it is with Kebbi State, it has been with several states across regions with a notable unsolved kidnapping of Leah Sharibu who was kidnapped alongside her colleagues on February 19, 2018, at 5:30 pm, where 110 schoolgirls aged 11–19 years old were kidnapped by the Boko Haram terrorist group from the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College (GGSTC) in Dapchi.

Dapchi is located in Bulabulin, Bursari Local Government Area of Yobe State, in the northeast part of Nigeria.

After the insurgent attack, the federal government of Nigeria deployed the Nigerian Air Force and other security agencies to search for the missing schoolgirls and to hopefully enable their return.

According to a report on Vanguard, the governor of Yobe State, Ibrahim Gaidam, blamed Nigerian Army soldiers for having removed a military checkpoint from the town.

A claim which resulted in a back and forth between the Governor, the State Police Command and the Nigerian Army.

The army claimed that it had withdrawn its forces from the town due to the absence of evidence of any Boko Haram activity in the general vicinity and that, at the time, it had formally handed over Dapchi’s security to the police before its withdrawal.

The Yobe state police commissioner strongly denied the army’s claim that his department had been formally informed by the army of the army’s withdrawal, and no proof of any such police notification was provided by the army.

Dapchi lies approximately 275 km (170 miles) northwest of Chibok, where over 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014.

Kagara Abduction

On 17 February 2021, no fewer than 42 people, including 27 students, were kidnapped when bandits attacked Government Science Secondary School, Kagara, in Niger State.

The Niger Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Muhammad Idris, who made this known, also said the whereabouts of three teachers are unknown.

According to him, 12 family members of the teachers were also abducted during the attack.

According to a source, the gunmen raided the Government Science College in Kagara district of Niger state at around 2 am.

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The former President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria ordered the police and the military to conduct a rescue operation.

On 19 February, the governor of the Niger State, Abubakar Sani-Bello, confirmed that the state government was in the final stages of negotiations with the bandits for the release of the abductees.

On 21 February, a military plane on its way to Minna to try to rescue the 42 hostages crashed, killing all seven people on board. The Chief of Air Staff ordered an immediate investigation to determine the cause of the crash.

On 27 February 2021, the government of Niger State announced that all the 42 people abducted from the Kagara school had been released by the bandits and received by the Niger state government.

Kankara kidnapping

In the evening of 11 December 2020, over 300 pupils were kidnapped from a boys’ secondary boarding school on the outskirts of Kankara, Katsina State.

A gang of gunmen on motorcycles stormed the premises of the Government Science Secondary School, reportedly housing over 800 students.

On 12 December, the armed forces said they found the gang’s hideout in a forest and exchanged gunfire with them.

On 14 December, Katsina’s governor, Aminu Bello Masari, told BBC News that the kidnappers had contacted the government and negotiations were ongoing for the release of the students, refuting claims that the abduction was carried out by Boko Haram terrorists.

On Thursday 17th of December, 344 of the victims were freed from where they were being held in a wood in neighbouring Zamfara State.

Chibok School Girls Kidnapping

On the night of 14–15 April 2014, 276 schoolgirls within the 16 to 18 age range were kidnapped by the most notorious Nigerian militant group, Boko Haram, from the Government Girls Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State.

According to an unconfirmed report on Wikipedia, before the raid, the school had been closed for four weeks due to deteriorating security conditions, but the girls were in attendance to take final exams in physics.

According to Daily Trust, parents of the 87 Chibok school girls still in captivity have called on the Nigerian government to “move beyond rhetoric” and return their children home.

During the national outcry over the missing girls, the viral #BringBackOurGirls campaign was launched, which brought the insecurity in the North East to international attention.

Report and details on the Chibok school can not be independently verified, as the majority of the reports were done before digital journalism was fully adopted by mainstream media in Nigeria, as reports on it are not available on the Punch Website, Vanguard, among other Nigerian media giants.

To avoid misinformation reports on the Chibok school attack will end here.