LAGOS: Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu on Thursday ordered his minister of state for defense to go to western Kebbi state, where two dozen girls kidnapped from their boarding school earlier this week are still missing.
The order for minister AlHajji Bello Matawalle to “relocate to Kebbi State over the abduction of 24 schoolgirls” came as pressure mounted on the government after US President Donald Trump this month threatened military action over what he described as the killing of Nigeria’s Christians, a narrative rejected by the Nigerian authorities.
A presidency statement said Matawalle had “experience in dealing with banditry and mass kidnapping,” after he secured the release of 279 students aged between 10 and 17 who had been kidnapped from a government secondary school in 2021 in western Zamfara state.
Another state, Kwara, in the east of the country, has ordered some schools shut following a deadly raid on a church on Tuesday, a government official told AFP.
Gunmen stormed a church service in the state on Tuesday, killing at least two people.
Michael Agbabiaka, an elder of the church, told AFP that the attackers fired shots, beat up worshippers and ransacked bags, taking cash and mobile phones.
Speaking by phone, he said 35 people had been abducted by the attackers.
Following the attack, Kwara state government directed the closure of schools in four areas as part of steps to “address recent security breaches,” state government spokesman Ibraheem Abdullateef told AFP.
“This decision was taken to checkmate kidnappers who may want to use schoolchildren as soft targets and human shields amidst a renewed crackdown on their hideouts by the security operatives,” he said.
Nigerian security forces have been placed on high alert, the information minister said this week, as the country faces an uncomfortable spotlight on its security situation.
Tinubu has “postponed” a trip to South Africa for a G20 summit and to Angola for an Africa-EU meeting to receive “security briefings” on the kidnapped schoolgirls and the church attack, his office said.
Nigerian defense minister to lead search for kidnapped schoolgirls
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Nigerian defense minister to lead search for kidnapped schoolgirls
- A presidency statement said Matawalle had “experience in dealing with banditry and mass kidnapping“
- He secured the release of 279 students who had been kidnapped in 2021 in Zamfara state
Guinea confirms detention of 16 Sierra Leonean soldiers
- Guinea said late Tuesday the soldiers entered the Koudaya district in the Faranah region without authorization
- Guinea said its forces seized their equipment and supplies
CONAKRY: Guinea’s military confirmed the detention of 16 Sierra Leonean soldiers after accusing them of crossing the border and raising their flag on Guinean soil.
The two West African countries have been involved in a border dispute for more than two decades, stemming from the Sierra Leonean Civil War between 1991 and 2002. Sierra Leone’s government had invited Guinea to help defend its eastern borders during the war, but the Guinean troops didn’t completely withdraw after the war.
The GuineanMinistry of National Defense said in a statement, issued late Tuesday, the soldiers entered the district of Koudaya in Faranah, a border region in Guinea, without authorization, where they“set up a tent and raised their national flag”. Guinean authorities also seized their equipment and supplies.
The Sierra Leonean authorities earlier Tuesday said several members of a security unit, including an officer, had been apprehended while making bricks fora border post in Kalieyereh in the district of Falaba on Monday.
Last year, the Guinean military entered a mineral-rich border town in Sierra Leone, reigniting the tension.
