Nigeria school kidnapping leaves dozens of children missing in Borno state

Dozens of children remained missing after gunmen seized students taking their final exam at Government Day Secondary School in Lassa, Borno state, leaving at least 36 pupils and one staff member unaccounted for. Eight students were rescued.

The school later released the names of 36 missing students, including 25 girls and 11 boys. The Borno State Government said the abducted students were between 15 and 18 years old, and the victims had been sitting the National Examinations Council Senior School Certificate Examination when the gunmen struck.

In May alone, armed men took at least 39 schoolchildren and seven teachers in Oyo state, killing one teacher in captivity, while suspected militants kidnapped 42 students from a primary and junior secondary school in Borno. Earlier waves have been even larger: gunmen took 303 pupils and 12 staff from a Catholic school in Niger state in November 2025, and another girls’ school attack in Kebbi state followed that same month.

Boko Haram has abducted more than 1,000 children in northeastern Nigeria since 2013, including the 276 schoolgirls taken from Chibok in 2014, UNICEF said. UNICEF has also said Nigeria has 10.2 million primary-age children and 8.1 million junior-secondary-age children out of school, and that attacks in 2022 and 2023 forced the closure of 113 schools in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.

In September 2024, UNICEF said states had met only 9 of 21 Minimum Standards for Safe Schools on average. On June 4, Mohamed Malick Fall, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, called for full implementation of those standards, stronger emergency response systems and the safe return of abducted children and teachers.