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By Lizzy Chirkpi
The Chief of Army Staff, Major General Waidi Shaibu has ordered a non-stop rescue mission for the 25 schoolgirls abducted in Kebbi State, northwest Nigeria. The incident has quickly become ammunition for United States (U.S) President Donald Trump’s supporters amid renewed accusations of Christian persecution.
The attack, carried out in the early hours of Monday at Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, marks the latest mass kidnapping in northern Nigeria, more than a decade after Boko Haram’s abduction of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State, shocked the world.
General Waidi on Tuesday told troops deployed to the area that failure was not an option.
“You must continue day and night fighting. We must find these children,” Shaibu charged, urging them to “leave no stone unturned” in the search-and-rescue effort.
Despite a swift police response, armed men scaled the school fence, killed the vice-principal, and escaped with the students.
Kebbi State has become a dangerous crossroads threatened by jihadist elements from neighbouring Niger and terrorised by armed criminal gangs that raid villages, kidnap residents, and kill indiscriminately across northern Nigeria.
The attack has been pulled into the orbit of Republican outrage as Congressman Riley Moore in a tweet on his X echoes Trump’s claims that Christians are being slaughtered in Nigeria, and therefore called for prayers.
“While we don’t have all the details on this horrific attack, we know that the attack occurred in a Christian enclave in Northern Nigeria,” Moore posted.
Trump earlier this month said he had asked the Pentagon to prepare a potential plan of attack in Nigeria, claiming radical Islamists are “killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers”.
However, Nigeria continues to face overlapping security crises jihadist insurgencies, banditry, and communal clashes that kill Muslims and Christians alike.
Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar told AFP on Monday that Abuja is actively discussing security cooperation with Washington.
Asked if he believed the US would carry out a military strike, Tuggar replied: “No, I do not think so. Because we continue to talk, and as I said, the discussion has progressed. It’s moved on from that.”