Security forces and a local defence group have commenced a search for over 400 schoolgirls abducted by a terror group in the early hours of Friday from their school in Jengebe, Zamfara State, Northwest Nigeria.
The schoolgirls were abducted when the terror group stormed the Government Girls Secondary School Jangebe and subsequently moved the students.
Multiple sources told HumAngle said the number of abducted schoolgirls could be as high as 417 while others said the figure could be more,
Jangebe is located in Talata Mafara local government area of Zamfara State.
HumAngle has learned that security forces and local vigilantes are attempting to rescue the students.
Kabiru Sani, the vice-president of Muryar Talaka in Zamfara State, whose three children were abducted, told BBC Hausa that the attackers broke into the school’s entrance and overpowered its security guard before abducting the students.
A teacher also told Daily Trust that after the abduction, not more than 50 students could be accounted for in the school which had a population of over 600 students.
“When the gunmen laid siege, they attacked the soldiers stationed in the community before they gained entry into the school. Some people told us that they stationed vehicles at the outskirts of the school,” the teacher narrated.
The recent abduction of school students is happening just weeks after a school pupil was killed and at least 27 other students and some staff and members of their families were abducted in Government Science College in Niger State, Northcentral Nigeria.
The first mass abduction in a school in Nigeria happened in Borno State, where over 300 students of Chibok Government Girls Secondary School were abducted by Boko Haram on April 14, 2014.
Four years later, the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) abducted 119 students from Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State.
In Dec. 2020, over 300 students were abducted from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State.
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