One of 25 schoolgirls abducted from a school dormitory in northwestern Nigeria’s Kebbi state has escaped captivity and returned home, the school principal said on Tuesday.
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The girls were abducted when gunmen attacked a high school in northwestern Nigeria before dawn on Monday, taking the 25 girls and killing a staff member at the school.
The student who escaped through forests and arrived home late on Monday, hours after the kidnapping at the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, said Musa Rabi Magaji, the school principal.
One other student, who was not among the 25 confirmed as abducted, also escaped in the minutes that followed the attack, the principal said.
“One is part of the 25 abducted [and] the other one returned earlier,” Magaji said. “They are safe and sound.”
Mass school kidnappings have been rampant in northern Nigeria, where dozens of armed gangs of mostly nomadic herdsmen and, more recently, jihadis, operate. Schools are often targeted by the gangs to gain more attention, analysts have said.
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No group has taken responsibility for the incident, but analysts and locals say it could be one of several gangs that often target schools, travellers and remote villagers in kidnappings for ransoms.