AS the world marks the 2025 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence with the theme “UNiTE to End Digital Violence Against All Women and Girls,” The ICIR reports that the recent abduction of schoolgirls concurrently in one week in Nigeria is a painful reminder that the threats girls face in Nigeria is not only online but also physical.
The ICIR reported that Before dawn on November 17, 2025, armed men breached the fence of Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State, killed a teacher, and abducted 25 schoolgirls a chilling echo of the Chibok, Dapchi, and other mass kidnappings of young girls in Nigeria.
The teacher was killed while trying to protect girls during the attack and a security guard later died in hospital from gunshot wounds.
An official of Danko Wasagu council, Hussaini Aliyu, told the BBC on November 19 that two girls among the 25 students managed to escape, explaining that the girls ran away across farmland as their armed captors were leading them into the bushes.
Aliyu added that though one of the girls needed medical treatment because she hurt her leg while running in the bushes, the girls were “back and are safe.”
Since Monday, a team of soldiers, police and volunteers have been combing forested areas in an attempt to rescue the students, but gunmen stormed St. Mary’s Papiri Private Catholic Secondary School in the Papiri community of Agwara Local Government Area, Niger State, in a fresh attack and abducted scores of students and teachers, in the early hours of Friday November 21, making it the second mass abduction within a week.
Local sources said the gunmen arrived at the school between 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m in large numbers, riding on over 60 motorcycles and accompanied by a van, and shot the school’s gatekeeper, leaving him with serious injuries.
The state government has said it is yet to confirm the number of students abducted, though some residents said dozens of children were abducted.
Gender advocates weigh in
Gender advocates and experts have described the incident as a reminder of painful memories and a repetition of a decade-long pattern of gendered violence that has defined insecurity in the country since the 2014 Chibok abduction, noting that the Kebbi and Niger tragedies underscores clearly that Nigeria is failing to protect its girls.
Tracing the pattern
One of the most notorious abductions occurred on April 14, 2014, when 276 schoolgirls aged between the 16 to 18, were abducted from Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State. An attack that sparked an outrage and brought about the famous bring back our girls campaign. By 2016, nearly 180 Chibok girls have either escaped or been rescued, though about 100 remain missing, especially Leah Shuaibu who refused to denounce her faith.Many of the freed women returned home with children, having endured forced marriage and sexual slavery.
In 2018, 110 girls were kidnapped after Boko Haram invaded the Government Girls Science Technical College (GGSTC) in Dapchi. While being held hostage, some of the girls died, and others were later rescued, leaving Leah Sharibu, a Christian child who had not been rescued to this day.
Gunmen raided the Government Science College Kagara, Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, on February 17, capturing 27 students including females and teachers in the school. On February 26, 2021, about 317 schoolgirls from the Government Girls Science Secondary School, Jangebe in Jangebe, Zamfara state. The following month, on March 11, 39 students including females were kidnapped by gunmen in the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Igabi LGA, Kaduna state.
In June, over 96 students including females and eight teachers were abducted by bandits at Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State.
Then in July, bandits kidnapped over 153 students including females of Bethel Baptist High School in Damishi town of Chikun local government area in Kaduna.
In September, 2023, 24 students were reportedly kidnapped from their hostel in Sabon Gida, Zamfara state. And in March 24, gunmen abducted about 287 children in Kaduna state from the Local Education Authority (LEA) Primary and Junior Secondary School, Kuriga, in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
And multiple other incidents that armed groups in Nigeria use girls for purposes of forced marriage, sexual slavery, domestic labor, ransom leverage, forced childbirth, ideological indoctrination.
Failure of safe school initiative
A coalition of Nigerian business leaders, working with the UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown, the Global Business Coalition for Education and A World at School launched the Safe Schools Initiative in 2014 in response to the growing number of attacks on the right to education, including the kidnapping of more than 200 girls in northern Nigeria.
However, civil society groups and experts have insisted that the initiative has not yielded results decades later.
The Northern Christian Youth Professionals (NCYP) released a statement on Friday criticising the Safe Schools Initiative (SSI) describing it as “weak visibility and poor impact” despite more than $20 million reportedly raised to secure schools.
NCYP highlighted concerns over the management of funds donated to the SSI since its creation after the 2014 Chibok abduction.
The group responsible recalled the contributions that were publicly reported, quoting private sector/business leaders to have pledged $10m as seed funding, Federal Government of Nigeria pledged $10m, FEC-approved support pledged $4.2m, United States Government (USAID/Embassy) pledged $2m, Qatar Government pledged $2m, noting that these contributions exceeded $20 million yet had “not translated into visible protection for schools.”
NCYP demanded that the SSI publish a comprehensive report detailing its activities, spending, implementing partners, emergency response plans, and impact assessments.
Similarly, the Senate on November 19 demanded President Bola Tinubu to probe into misuse and poor implementation of the N144.7 billion SSI following the Kebbi abduction, insisting that schools in high-risk zones still have no perimeter fence, CCTV, early warning systems, armed patrols, or emergency evacuation plans.
The Nigerian Senate’s demands reflect widespread concern that political promises have not translated into concrete protection for children, especially girls.
Advocates have insisted that the government cannot claim to invest in preventing violence against women and girls while schools remain undefended in areas plagued by armed groups, classrooms are battlegrounds, and girls’ bodies remain targets of bargaining, ransom, and terror.
Indeed, this year’s 16 Days of Activism is a stark reminder that the recent abduction of schoolgirls in Kebbi and Niger States is a stark reminder that ending violence against women and girls must begin with protecting their right to learn without fear.
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Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.