Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
23-05-2026
ABUJA: Armed men abducted 39 students and seven teachers in an attack targeting several schools in Nigeria’s southwestern Oyo State last week, officials and a Christian association have said.
The attack took place on Friday in Ahoro Esinele community in Oriire district, targeting a secondary school and two primary schools, officials said on Monday.
Elisha Olukayode Ogundiya, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Oyo State, said 46 people, mostly children aged between two and 16 years, were taken away following the attacks.
In what police called a “coordinated attack”, armed men simultaneously raided Baptist Nursery and Primary in Yawota, and two other schools in Esiele, seizing pupils and teachers.
President Bola Tinubu condemned the attack as “barbaric”, while promising that the federal government was working with the Oyo State to “rescue all the victims”.
“We expect a breakthrough soon,” he said in a statement released by his office.
Governor Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde said one abducted teacher was killed on Sunday, citing a video. Six suspects have been arrested, including alleged informants and logistics suppliers to the kidnappers, he added.
A joint rescue operation by soldiers, police and local vigilantes was disrupted after they encountered improvised explosive devices planted by the attackers, leaving several wounded, Makinde added. Those injured are receiving treatment, he said.
Mass kidnappings by armed groups have become a serious security challenge in Nigeria in recent years, with criminal gangs exploiting weak security to target travelers, students, and rural communities for cash payments. Schools are often targeted, although such attacks are rare in the southwest of the country.
On Monday, the United States military’s Africa Command (AFRICOM) says it has carried out additional air strikes against ISIL (ISIS) fighters in northeastern Nigeria in coordination with the Nigerian government.
The “additional kinetic” strikes happened on Sunday, AFRICOM said in a statement, adding that no US or Nigerian forces were harmed during the strikes.
“The removal of these terrorists diminishes the group’s capacity to plan attacks that threaten the safety and security of the US and our partners,” the statement said. “AFRICOM remains committed to leveraging specialized US capabilities in support of our partners to defeat shared security threats.”
The US attack in coordination with Nigeria came two days after the presidents of both countries announced the killing of Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, described as the second in command of ISIL. He was targeted “along with several of his lieutenants” in a strike on his compound in the Lake Chad Basin, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said on Saturday.
US President Donald Trump first made the announcement in a social media post on Friday without disclosing when or where the joint Nigerian-US military operation happened.
Before pledging allegiance to ISIL in 2015, al-Minuki was a prominent Boko Haram leader, according to the Nigerian army, which said al-Minuki oversaw key ISIL operations in the Sahel and West African regions for the ISIL affiliate in West Africa Province (ISWAP).
Dennis Amachree, former director of the US Department of State Services in Nigeria, told media that the killing of al-Minuki “is going to create a huge vacuum in the leadership and financing of ISWAP as many top officers were decimated with him”.
This latest wave of US-Nigeria coordinated attacks comes as dozens of US soldiers have been deployed to Nigeria in recent months to help fight against armed groups, engage in intelligence sharing and provide technical support. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
