In a week between November 17 and 21 2025, Nigeria experienced four violent cases of abductions sprinkled with brutal killings by terrorists in the northern region.
The effects of the incidents which caused panic across states and troubled the administration of President Bola Tinubu have spread to the new week.
The violent non-state actors who raided towns and villages in Kebbi, Borno, Kwara and Niger states, left residents grappling with intense sorrows and aching tears as they mourn abducted relatives and families and friends wasted during the tragic incidents.
The daredevils did not only kill victims but also took several hostages.
In an attempt at making a resounding statement, Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists also abducted and killed a Brigadier General, Musa Uba.
Monday’s attack in Maga, Kebbi State
The attacks commenced on Monday, November 17, in Maga, a town in Kebbi State. The terrorists who arrived and left on motorcycles, wielding guns, stormed the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, and kidnapped 25 schoolgirls from their classrooms, injured and abducted the school principal, and killed the school’s vice principal who attempted to stop them from abducting the pupils.
Tuesday’s church attack and killing of military commander
On Tuesday, November 18, terrorists invaded the Christ Apostolic Church during a prayer service in Eruku village in the Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State. They killed three worshippers and abducted 38 others. Notwithstanding the heartrending incident, the church held a Sunday service today, marching onward like Christians soldiers that they are. However, the Kwara State government disclosed on Sunday that the 38 abducted worshippers had regained freedom.
Earlier on Tuesday, Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists killed a Brigade Commander, Brigadier General Musa Uba, abducted hours after he conducted a successful joint air–ground offensive against the terrorists in Borno State. The brigadier general who earlier escaped from the terrorists’ snare, was intercepted and tracked to his location along the Damboa–Biu axis in Borno State, where he was recaptured and killed, with ISWAP openly taking responsibility for his death.
303 pupils, 12 teachers abducted in Niger State on Friday
While Nigerian security forces deployed more troops to Kebbi, Kwara, and Borno states; with Mr Tinubu cancelling his planned foreign trips; on Friday, November 21, the defiant terrorists, again attacked another school in Niger State. This time round, they attacked the St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri in the Agwara Local Government Area of Niger State, abducting 303 students and 12 teachers, in a community sharing border with Kebbi State where the Monday school attack occurred. The state’s Christian Association of Nigeria on Sunday confirmed that 50 of the pupils escaped and had reunited with their families.
Within five days, the terrorists wreaked havoc across Nigeria’s northern region.
Though terrorists have held Nigeria by the jugular for over a decade under the regimes of successive presidents — Musa Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, and Muhammadu Buhari, the recent attacks appear calculated, particularly coming on the heels of the United States of America’s President Donald Trump’s threats to deploy troops to Nigeria against terrorists allegedly targeting Christians.
During the week of the attacks, the U.S. government met with a delegation of the Nigerian government led by National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, in Washington DC, to discuss an improved collaboration between both countries to fight the terrorists.
The attacks across Nigeria have left communities in agonising sorrows, endless tears, and bloodshed as families struggle to trudge on.
From remote villages to bubbling towns, the trauma inflicted by the violent groups caused deep emotional and physical wounds, exposing the insecurity harassing the country.
Security experts proffer solutions
It’s clear that Nigerians desire peace and wouldn’t mind interventions from the United States of America, especially for a possible deployment of its troops to places such as Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Kebbi, Niger, Kaduna, Plateau, Benue, and Kwara states, to combat the rampaging terrorists.
Security experts have called on the Federal Government to undertake a comprehensive overhaul of its counterterrorism strategy. They advised that continued reliance on conventional military tactics would not resolve the escalating violent attacks across the country.
The security experts also said the recent surge in violent attacks in the country might have been provoked majorly by the recent threat of Mr Trump to deploy troops to Nigeria over alleged Christian genocide.
They were also of the view that abducting schoolgirls as soft targets was probably to use them as shield against possible troops’ attacks on them and their hideouts.
A security expert, Abayomi Mumuni, in a statement, condemned the recent abductions and killings across the country, noting that the surge in extremist violence showed that no part of the country was safe from the festering security threat.
Also, a UK–based Nigerian security expert, Bulama Bukarti, advocated permanent deployment of service chiefs to the affected areas. Mr Bukarti who spoke on Channels TV, warned that the recurring attacks on schools, churches, and security formations stemmed from weak response systems within Nigeria’s security architecture.
He said, “It is a very sad day. My condolences go to the families of those who lost their lives in the church, the students still in captivity, and the soldiers and youth corps members killed in recent attacks.”
Mr Bukarti noted that the rate of student kidnappings in Nigeria remains unmatched globally.
He stated, “This is the 12th mass kidnapping of students in Nigeria, affecting over 1,600 children. There is nowhere else in the world where terrorists walk into a school and abduct the entire student body, yet this keeps happening here. One happened under President Jonathan. This is now the third under President Tinubu. It has happened under all presidents.”
He stressed that the challenge was not weak intelligence but inadequate and poorly coordinated responses.
Mr Bukarti stated, “Our problem is not lack of information. It is a lack of capacity and coordination to respond on time. Personnel are too few, mobility is poor, and reinforcements are slow. That allows terrorists to move freely and carry out attacks. Communities often warn authorities before attacks, yet nothing is done in time. That is the key failure.”
