Toddlers Among Dozens of Children Kidnapped in Coordinated School Attacks in Northeast Nigeria

Gunmen armed with automatic weapons stormed two schools in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State in the early hours of Tuesday, kidnapping more than 50 schoolchildren and at least seven teachers in a coordinated double raid that has stunned the region and reignited debate about the government’s ability to protect civilians in areas still reeling from more than a decade of insurgency.

Among those taken were toddlers aged under five, according to officials at the Askira-UBA local government area. Parents who rushed to the schools at dawn found shattered classrooms, overturned furniture, and bloodstains but no sign of their children. The attack is among the most brazen since the insurgents shifted tactics away from large-scale military engagements and towards soft targets — especially schools and villages — in recent years.

Security sources said the attackers arrived on motorcycles, a hallmark of the modus operandi associated with both Boko Haram and its offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province. They cordoned off the schools before breaking in, rounded up students into the bush, and vanished within hours. A joint search operation involving the Nigerian Army and local vigilantes has been launched across three local government areas, but officials acknowledged there had been no confirmed sighting of the children as of Wednesday morning.

Nigeria’s President addressed the nation from Abuja, calling the attacks “a cowardly act against the future of Nigeria” and ordering the security chiefs to ensure the immediate and safe release of all captives. He stopped short of attributing the attacks to a specific group, though analysts say the scale and precision point to established militant networks with informants inside the communities.

The attacks have drawn sharp criticism from opposition politicians, civil society groups, and the families of those taken. “The government talks about winning the war against insurgency, but our children are still being taken from their classrooms,” said a community leader in Askira-UBA who asked not to be named. “When will this end?”

Borno State has been the epicentre of Nigeria’s insurgency since 2009, when security forces moved against Boko Haram in a crackdown that would eventually spiral into a full-scale regional conflict. The group launched a campaign of mass kidnappings in 2014, most famously taking 276 girls from Chibok — more than 100 of whom remain missing. A second major kidnapping occurred in Dapchi in 2018, when 110 girls were taken. Both incidents became international causes celebres. Tuesday’s attack is a grim reminder that the kidnapping of children for ideological and financial purposes remains deeply embedded in the region’s security landscape.

International humanitarian organisations have urged the Nigerian government to prioritise the safe release of the children and to strengthen protections for educational institutions in conflict zones. UNICEF Nigeria issued a statement calling for “the immediate protection of all children in the region” and reminding authorities of their obligations under international humanitarian law to spare schools from military targeting.

The Askira-UBA attacks also expose the deepening gap between the government’s public claims of victory over the insurgency and the lived reality of communities in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa states, where attacks on villages, markets, and schools continue on a regular basis. Military officials maintain that the insurgency has been degraded significantly, pointing to territorial losses and the killing of top commanders. Critics, however, argue that a degraded insurgency does not equate to a defeated one — and that its capacity to carry out mass kidnappings demonstrates exactly that distinction.