Suspected militants abduct dozens of pupils in Borno school attack
Gunmen on motorcycles stormed a Borno school at 9 a.m., abducting dozens of pupils and reviving fears that Nigeria’s school security remains broken.
Gunmen on motorcycles stormed Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School in Borno state as pupils were in class, abducting dozens of children and exposing how fragile security remains in the northeast.
The attack hit Askira-Uba Local Government Area at around 9 a.m. on Friday, May 15, 2026, when lessons were underway. Multiple reports described the assailants as suspected Boko Haram or Boko Haram-ISWAP fighters, but no group had claimed responsibility as officials and local lawmakers tried to piece together the scale of the raid.
Accounts of the number taken varied. Some local reporting put the toll at about 40 children, while other reports said more than 50 schoolchildren were seized. One account said toddlers were among those taken. The school sits in a part of Borno state close to the Sambisa Forest, a long-used militant hideout that has become shorthand for the reach of insurgents in the region.
The abduction renewed scrutiny of whether Nigeria’s counterinsurgency efforts have done more than shift violence across rural terrain. Mussa’s residents said the attackers arrived by motorcycle, a pattern that has repeatedly allowed armed groups to move quickly through areas where state protection is thin and response times are slow. The raid also underscored how schools in remote communities remain exposed even after years of military pressure on insurgent networks.
The assault recalled the April 14-15, 2014, abduction in Chibok, also in Borno state, when Boko Haram seized 276 schoolgirls from a dormitory. Amnesty International says it has documented at least 17 mass abductions since then, involving at least 1,700 children taken from their schools. For families across northeastern Nigeria, the latest attack was another reminder that classrooms have remained vulnerable targets, and that basic trust in public safety has not recovered.
With no immediate official claim of responsibility and police confirmation still pending, the attack left Mussa with a familiar mixture of fear and uncertainty. Each new school kidnapping deepens the strain on education, local commerce, and civic confidence in a region where communities have long lived between insurgent violence and an uneven state response.
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