Gun-wielding individuals have killed a teacher and abducted at least 25 students in an raid targeting a female high school in Nigeria's northwestern region, according to police.
The armed faction breached the comprehensive secondary school for girls in the Maga locality within Kebbi State at approximately 04:00 local time on the beginning of the work week, authorities reported.
The armed individuals "exchanged fire with security forces on duty in a gun duel" before climbing over the boundary wall and taking the pupils captive from their hostel, an official report indicated.
An educational worker was fatally shot while defending the students. An additional employee received firearm injuries and is now undergoing medical care.
Eyewitnesses described a large group of attackers, identified in the area as outlaw groups, who appeared discharging weapons intermittently to create fear.
Local residents informed journalists that the armed men then led a number of girls into surrounding rural areas.
The authorities announced they had sent "supplementary tactical squads, together with army members and local protection units" to the area.
A coordinated search and rescue operation is currently ongoing in nearby woodlands and believed flight corridors.
In the past few years, learning centers in northern Nigerian regions have increasingly been targeted for armed groups, who often carry out abductions to request monetary settlements or gain negotiating power with authorities.
The attack in Kebbi State highlights the persistent security crisis troubling the locality, leaving families in Maga in a situation of anxious fatigue as they wait and hope for their children's secure homecoming.
Safety emergency in Nigeria's northern territories has escalated dramatically in the last several months, with learning centers bearing the brunt of the unrest.