Abductions: Northern Nigeria’s Education Sector Faces Fresh Crisis – Amnesty Int’l

By Emmanuel Kwada 

Amnesty International Nigeria has warned that the wave of school kidnappings sweeping across the north is pushing an already battered education system toward collapse.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, Country Director Isa Sanusi said the trauma of abduction, and even the constant fear of it, will drive thousands of children, especially girls, out of school for good.

He explained that in rural communities parents already make heavy sacrifices to let their children attend classes instead of working at home. With security repeatedly failing, many will now decide the risk is simply too high.

“The trauma that comes with being abducted, or with the fear of being abducted, is going to prevent thousands of children from getting education completely,” Sanusi said. “Now, with these repeated failures, education will suffer even more setbacks, especially in Northern Nigeria. People will be scared of going to school, and parents will be more sceptical about allowing their children to attend.”

He warned that adding fresh dropouts to the more than twelve million children already out of school in the country risks condemning an entire generation to illiteracy and deepening the cycle of poverty and violence.

The alarm follows two devastating attacks in less than a week.

Early Monday morning, gunmen stormed Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Danko/Wasagu area of Kebbi State, abducting at least twenty-four schoolgirls and killing the vice principal.

Days earlier, on Friday, armed men raided St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in Papiri, Niger State, taking away more than three hundred and fifteen pupils and staff. Fifty students later escaped into the surrounding bush, but most remain in captivity.

The incidents have triggered widespread panic. Several state governments have ordered boarding schools in vulnerable areas closed, while many parents have quietly withdrawn their children even from day schools.

Amnesty International urged federal and state authorities to treat the protection of schools as an emergency, strengthen security around learning institutions, and ensure every abducted child is rescued and supported.

Until that happens, Sanusi concluded, the future of education in Northern Nigeria remains grim and dangerous.