Islamic Extremists Abduct Students in Nigeria  

On Monday morning, Gunmen attacked Government Day Secondary School in Lassa, Askira/Uba Local Government Area of Borno state while students were sitting for National Examinations Council examinations, abducting students and school staff and killing at least one teacher, according to Nigerian officials and media reports. 

The attack occurred after 9 a.m., according to Borno State Police spokesperson ASP Nuhu Kenneth Daso, who described the incident as a terrorist attack. SaharaReporters reported that the assailants stormed the town on motorcycles during Lassa’s market day, fired repeatedly, and took away students and teachers. 

By Tuesday, Reuters reported that at least 36 students and one staff member remained in captivity, while eight people, including the school’s vice principal, had been rescued. Borno State Commissioner for Education, Lawan Abba Wakilbe, said those still held included 25 female students, 11 male students, and one staff member. 

The Associated Press report1that 36 students and three teachers were missing after the raid, and that at least one teacher was killed. Amnesty International Nigeria gave a higher casualty figure, saying two teachers and one student were killed, while the number of abducted students was initially unspecified.

Local and police accounts said the attackers. were dressed in military-style clothing, including camouflage and forest guard uniforms. Anadolu Agency reported that the clothing appeared intended to make the assailants look like legitimate security personnel.  

Security forces, including police and military personnel, launched a search operation after the abduction. Daso said the area commander in Askira/Uba had mobilized police and military units to pursue the attackers into nearby bush areas.   

Likely Suspects 

The U.S. government designated Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group in 2013. The U.S. National Counterterrorism Center describes Boko Haram as a Sunni violent extremist group seeking to establish a Salafi-Islamist state in Nigeria free from Western-style education and influence. 

Boko Haram is often associated with the 2014 abduction of schoolgirls from Chibok, also in Borno. The group and its splinter faction, Islamic State West Africa Province, have operated for years across northeastern Nigeria and the Lake Chad region, including parts of Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.  

Boko Haram’s ideology has made schools a repeated target. The group opposes Western-style education, and its attacks have affected Muslim and Christian communities across the region. For Christians in northern Nigeria, Boko Haram’s violence forms part of a wider security crisis in which extremists and armed groups have attacked churches, villages, pastors, farmers, and students. Authorities have not publicly identified the religious affiliation of the abducted students, but the pattern of attacks has continued to limit education and daily life in communities where Christians and other civilians live under threat. 

The Effects of Terrorism

Amnesty International has warned that school abductions in northern Nigeria are keeping children out of classrooms. In a 2025 report, Amnesty said at least 15 mass abductions of schoolchildren had been documented since the 2014 Chibok kidnapping, and that school closures across several northern states were affecting access to education.  

In its statement after the Lassa attack, Amnesty International Nigeria said schools should be places of safety and called on Nigerian authorities to take concrete steps to protect children and schools from armed groups operating across northern Nigeria.   

The Lassa attack took place during NECO examinations, a national secondary school examination taken by Nigerian students. The students attacked were between 15 and 18 years old, according to the Associated Press.   

Security commentator Polycarp Garba, reacting to the attack, pointed to the timing of the assault and questioned the speed of emergency response in a region that has faced insurgency for more than a decade. He noted that the students were attacked in broad daylight and argued that the distance between Maiduguri and Lassa should raise questions about whether a faster air response was possible once distress calls began. 

The attack comes after Nigerian authorities reported recent operations against insurgent groups in the northeast. Earlier in June, the Nigerian army rescued more than 300 people abducted by Boko Haram from Ngoshe, a town about 71 miles from Lassa, according to the Associated Press. In May, Nigerian officials said a joint Nigerian-U.S. operation killed 175 ISWAP fighters.   

As of the latest official figures reported Tuesday, dozens of students remained missing from the Lassa school attack. For families in the community, the examination hall where students gathered to complete a step toward graduation has become the latest site in Nigeria’s long-running school abduction crisis. 

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The post Islamic Extremists Abduct Students in Nigeria   first appeared on International Christian Concern.