Security forces in northwest Nigeria are intensifying their efforts to find the 25 schoolgirls abducted by gunmen in an early-morning raid on their school this week.

Police said men armed with rifles stormed Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Kebbi State’s Maga town approximately 4am local time (03:00 GMT) on Monday, arriving on motorcycles in an apparently well-planned attack.

The attackers exchanged gunfire with police before scaling the perimeter fence and abducting the students. The assailants killed the school’s vice principal during the attack.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for abducting the girls, and their motivation was unclear.

On Tuesday, security teams swept nearby forests where gangs often hide, while others were deployed along major roads leading to the school.

Kebbi Governor Nasir Idris visited the school on Monday and assured of efforts to rescue the girls, and Lieutenant-General Waidi Shaibu, Nigeria’s chief of army staff met with soldiers in the hours after the attack and directed “intelligence-driven operations and relentless day-and-night pursuit of the abductors,” according to an army statement.

“We must find these children. Act decisively and professionally on all intelligence. Success is not optional,” Shaibu told troops during a visit to Kebbi on Tuesday. “You must continue day and night fighting.”

He urged the soldiers to “leave no stone unturned” in the search for the schoolgirls.

Monday’s raid was the second mass school abduction in Kebbi in four years, following a June 2021 incident when bandits took more than 100 students and staff members from a government college.

Those students were released in batches over two years after parents raised ransoms. Some of the students were forcefully married and returned with babies.

At least 1,500 students have been kidnapped across the country since members of the Boko Haram armed group abducted 276 girls from their school in the town of Chibok on April 14, 2014.

In March 2024, more than 130 schoolchildren were rescued after spending more than two weeks in captivity in the Nigerian state of Kaduna.

While Kebbi State police told news wire AFP on Tuesday that the abducted schoolchildren were all Muslim, supporters of US President Donald Trump have seized on the tragedy to embolden their claim that Christians are under attack in Nigeria.

“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,” Republican Representative Riley Moore wrote on X.

Trump has threatened to invade Nigeria “guns-a-blazing” over what right-wing lawmakers in the US allege is a ‘Christian genocide’

Nigeria has rejected the US president’s statements, saying the country’s various security crises have left more Muslims dead.

[Aljazeera]

Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya stated that education is a process of sharing collective knowledge, and has the power to bring people together politically, socially, and economically.

The Prime Minister made these remarks while addressing the conference held on Tuesday (18) at the Galle Face Hotel, Colombo, aimed at fostering cooperation among countries in Asia, the Middle East, and the Pacific region regarding the role of education within the Green Transition.

The Erasmus+ Programme funded by the European Union, is one of the world’s leading initiatives for international cooperation in education, training, youth, and sports. Its objectives include enhancing mobility between countries, intercultural exchange, capacity development, and policy advancement.

The programme creates opportunities for collaboration and funding in higher education, vocational training, youth development, and institutional partnerships in Sri Lanka. This conference will be held from the 18th to the 20th of this month at the Galle Face Hotel, Colombo.

Further expressing her views, Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya sated:

“As a legacy of the post-colonial education system, Sri Lanka has become a country with a high literacy rate.

However, today, education has become something that focuses only on individual success and achievement. As a result, the planning and principles of education have become heavily driven by competition.

Consequently, our education system has become extremely competitive and examination-oriented. Education should not be a process aimed solely at individual achievement.

What we now strive for is to move away from this educational model and restore the true purpose of education where its aims be not merely scoring high marks, but sharing collective knowledge and strengthening transformative learning.

We often forget the transformative power of education. It goes beyond personal achievement. Education has the ability to unite people politically, socially, and economically. Therefore, it is essential to shape education into a shared space of mutual expectation and mutual success.

Within our new education reforms, promoting collaborative learning, fostering a sense of responsibility towards one another, building responsibility towards the world, and especially towards the environment amidst today’s global challenges, have become extremely important.

Amid the spread of unscientific methods and misinformation in the modern world, the necessity of education has become even more pronounced. Moreover, the pressures within the university system can also be overcome through this transformation.

The importance of such dialogues, exchanges, and discussions emphasises once again the need for transformative education, a form of learning that encourages sharing of ideas and working together.

Transforming our education system from a cage of competition into a free space of collaboration and responsible knowledge-sharing is one of the fundamental challenges Sri Lanka must overcome for its future”.

The event was attended by the Ambassador of the European Union to Sri Lanka Carmen Moreno, Secretary to the Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education Nalaka Kaluwewa, as well as regional representatives and government officials.

[Prime Minister’s Media Division]