Nigeria

Two HumAngle investigations were recognised at the 2025 Excellence in Journalism Awards in West Africa, winning in the health reporting category and placing as first runner-up in sexual and gender-based violence reporting. 

The awards, organised by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), drew 275 entries from across the region and were announced during the Media and Development Conference in Abuja, North Central Nigeria, on Wednesday, November 26. 

The top prize in health reporting went to “Amid Deforestation Scourge, Vanishing Herbal Plants Pose Health Crisis in Southwestern Nigeria”, an investigation by freelance journalist Abdulwaheed Sofiullahi published by HumAngle with support from the Pulitzer Centre. His reporting detailed how worsening deforestation threatens access to traditional medicine for rural Nigerians, deepening risks from malaria, typhoid, and other common illnesses.

Abdulwaheed, who covers environment and health issues for several local and international outlets, urged young reporters to keep pursuing impactful stories as he received his award. He has previously served as a Health Reporting Fellow at the Wits Centre for Journalism in Johannesburg and is a member of the Oxford Climate Society.

HumAngle also earned recognition in the sexual and gender-based violence category, where Managing Editor Hauwa Shaffii Nuhu’s investigation, “A Tragic Femicide Case in Northeastern Nigeria Smells Like Honour Killing”, emerged as first runner-up. 

The story exposed the killing of a young girl by her uncle in Bama, Borno State, revealing the entrenched gender-based violence and systemic failures faced by women and girls in Nigeria’s conflict-affected North East.

Following publication, the investigation generated national attention for its detailed reporting and sensitive narration, prompting authorities to declare the suspect wanted. He has yet to be arrested. 

Hauwa, a conflict reporter with bylines in multiple international publications, documents the human toll of terrorism and insurgency through long-form storytelling and documentary work. She has won several journalism fellowships, including the 2025 FASPE Journalism Fellowship and the 2024 Ochberg Fellowship at the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma. She is also a Pulitzer Centre grantee. 

HumAngle’s multiple recognitions underscore the newsroom’s commitment to covering the human cost of conflict and humanitarian crisis, to bear witness and also hold authorities to account, especially in communities frequently missing from mainstream narratives. 

The CJID awards honour impactful journalism across West Africa, with categories spanning investigations, fact-checking, public service reporting, climate journalism, environment, politics, and gender. 

The award’s panel of judges disclosed that the entries were graded for accuracy and fairness, originality and innovativeness of the reporter, depth of research, storytelling, and public impact, as well as adherence to standards of reporting. This year’s finalists included journalists from Nigeria and Ghana.

Nov. 23 (UPI) — A group of 50 schoolchildren who were kidnapped from St. Mary’s School in Niger state Friday have escaped, the Christian Association of Nigeria reported Sunday. More than 250 people remain in captivity.

The students range in age from 15 to 18 and escaped between Friday and Saturday, the Most Reverend Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, chairman of CAN said Sunday.

Some of the students hid in bushes to escape their captors, Bloomberg reported. Local farmers helped the children escape, according to Daniel Atori a St. Mary’s schools spokesperson.

School abductions have become more frequent in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, and symbolic of growing insecurity and fear in the region, led by armed gangs targeting schools and demanding ransom for captured students.

The latest round of kidnappings has prompted international concern, and focused scrutiny on broader issues such as government-backed security, access to education and the vulnerability of communities in northern Nigeria.

The latest incident happened as the world’s political and religious leaders, as well as top entertainment personalities, have spoken out against the lack of safety for children in the region, including President Donald Trump, Pope Leo XIV and hip hop artist Nicki Minaj.

In the latest incident, gunmen entered the boarding school early on Friday and took 315 people — 303 students and 12 teachers and staff, remain captive, CAN reported.

The St. Mary’s incident was the second mass kidnapping in the past week, which has increased scrutiny on Nigerian President Bola Tinubu to better police the issue and offer better security for school children.

When Mariam* first started thinking of deserting Boko Haram’s settlement at Sambisa Forest, where she had been living for a decade, she was not entirely sure that it was the best idea. She still believed in the cause, for starters. But there was the matter of her body starting to fail her. 

Her husband had just died of HIV/AIDS, and she had unfortunately contracted the disease from him before he passed. Although the doctor in the forest tried to provide her with medication, it was not consistent. In addition, she had kids she feared infecting. Then, she started to hear that access to antiretroviral drugs was free in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital in northeastern Nigeria. So, she began to tinker with the idea, for the first time, of leaving the group behind. 

The group was all she had known for the past decade. She had even been prepared, at some point, to give her life for the cause by volunteering for a suicide bombing. She had been approved for it and had begun to undergo training and preparations when she realised she was pregnant. Her husband, previously supportive of what they collectively thought of as her noble martyrdom, then decided she could not blow herself up while carrying their child. She was heavily disappointed. That’s how far she was willing to go for the Boko Haram cause.

And so to leave it all behind seemed impossible. 

She had joined when the group first declared war on the Nigerian state over a decade ago, leaving state-controlled territories for the Sambisa Forest. They sought to establish what they believed to be an Islamic state, declaring formal education, democracy, and elections forbidden. Their campaign has killed over 35,000 people violently, displaced over two million others, and caused over 25,000 others to go missing. Mariam had been attending their sermons right from the early, non-violent days. 

Eventually, after nearly a decade, she left with her children in 2017. Since coming back to Maiduguri, she has had uninterrupted access to free medications for her condition, reducing her viral load and making her no longer infectious. And so, even though she considered the economic prospects and living conditions in Maiduguri to be worse than in Sambisa, she stayed because she could remain alive.

She keeps the truth of her condition from her children and everyone she knows. 

Earlier this year, however, the United States President Donald Trump announced the suspension of USAID, which was primarily responsible for the accessibility of antiretroviral drugs for people like Mariam. Without the USAID subsidy, the drugs are estimated to be unaffordably expensive for low-income earners like Mariam.

Word started to go around that the availability of the drugs would falter. When Mariam ran out of her six-month stash of medications, she returned to the Borno State Specialist Hospital to get a refill, as she has done for years now. There, she met a surprise that scared her. 

“They only gave me one small can of pills, not the usual two. They seemed to have changed the ratio. They didn’t say why, only that they had changed the ratio. The bottle will only last me three months,” she recounted.

It worried her. When she got home from the hospital, she poured the pills into a thin white plastic bag and hid it, as usual. That way, it is inconspicuous, and anyone who knew the kind of bottles the drugs came in would not be able to recognise hers. This is so that she would avoid stigma.

“Nobody knows I have HIV to date. Even my children. And they are HIV-free. I had them tested at the hospital. Even the eldest among them doesn’t know.”

Around the same time, NGO-run health facilities were also starting to shut down in many rural communities in Borno. For example, in Konduga, a primary healthcare centre run by Family Health International (FHI360) was shut down. The facility had been receiving hundreds of patients daily until its abrupt suspension, leaving many in need and others unemployed. 

For Mariam, this has made her begin to consider going back to the terror group, especially after she lost everything during the tragic Maiduguri floods last year. She and her children barely escaped with their lives. The flood had swept through Maiduguri and neighbouring areas, affecting over one million people in total. Her daughter had initially been swept away until a neighbour dove into the waves and rescued her.

“It was a young man who came to help. I was at the verge of diving into the water myself when he came and said not to worry, that he would get her back, and he did. We could not salvage anything else from the flood. We were displaced to the Bakassi IDP camp.” 

When Mariam ran out of the three-month stash and went back to the hospital for a refill, she was only handed a one-month stash this time. The two times she has gone back for more refills after she had exhausted each, she only received one month’s stash, further scaring her.

Though she is no longer as committed to the Boko Haram ideology as she used to be, the realisation that she and her children’s lives are not safe has made her seriously reconsider the prospect of returning

A medical doctor working in Borno State, who pleaded anonymity, confirmed that the drugs had become difficult to access after the USAID suspension. “Patients who showed up at the hospitals were being told that the drugs were not available,” the doctor told HumAngle. “But if you knew your way around and gave some pharmacists some money, they would then give you the drugs, but keep in mind that the drugs are meant to be free. The situation has mildly improved.”

The availability of healthcare among terror groups is traceable to many sources. They are notorious for abducting healthcare workers and forcing them to work for them. But they also took medical training very seriously during the early days when the group first started to tactically come together over a decade ago, according to a former member of the group. 

Now, as many people are coming back to state-controlled territories, the rewards for recidivism have reportedly become higher, as the groups struggle to maintain their followers. Mariam hears these whispers from many of her associates.

“In addition to the drugs they were giving me in Sambisa, they would also give me a litre of honey and some black seed,” she said, adding that the honey and black seed were to help build her immune system.

In northwestern Nigeria, children who escaped or were rescued from terror groups have reported similar experiences. Some boys told HumAngle in an investigation that they joined the groups for things like food and healthcare. They said these were some of the incentives that made staying easy, and why they were not so keen on returning to state-controlled territories.

“I collected the last batch exactly a week ago today,” Mariam said of her access to the drugs. “The flow has never stopped. They always give me on schedule; it is just that I now only get one-month refills.” 

“The life over there is way better,” she said of Sambisa. “If I were there, I would have received a lot of support, especially with my husband dead. Here, who will help me? Everyone is focused on themselves. There is peace of mind there.”

When asked how there could be peace of mind there, with the threat of military bombardment ever present, she said the military would not harm women and children, and so she still would have been safe. “They will only ‘rescue’ us and bring us back to Borno… Even recently, I said to myself that life over there would be better for me. There were so many things weighing down on me at that time. It was even before the flood.”

On whether her children’s lives would be better in Maiduguri, she said it would only be so if her children had access to formal education here, which they don’t. Now, they spend all their time either at home with her or roaming the streets.

When we first spoke in June 2023, she had told me that her children were opposed to the Nigerian army and would throw rocks at them on the road, chanting war songs. When I asked her if things had improved now, she said yes.

“They don’t do that anymore,” she laughed. “They have forgotten. They don’t even want to hear anything related to Boko Haram anymore.”

If she could make an appeal for help to the government, it would be for three things. “Healthcare, school for my children, and a means of livelihood.”

This work was produced as a result of a grant provided by the Wits Centre for Journalism’s African Investigative Journalism Conference.

*Mariam is a pseudonym used to protect her anonymity. 

HumAngle Foundation officially commenced the Strengthening Community Journalism and Human Rights Advocacy (SCOJA) Fellowship with workshops in Kaduna and Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria, on Nov. 10, bringing together community journalists and human rights advocates to enhance skills in ethical storytelling and evidence-driven reporting.

The third batch of the training commenced on Monday, Nov. 17, in Maiduguri, Borno State. 

Supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Nigeria, the fellowship aims to build the capacity of community journalists and advocates across northern Nigeria.

A total of 90 fellows from nine states — North West (Kaduna and Kano), North Central (Benue, Niger, Plateau, Nasarawa), and North East (Borno, Adamawa, Yobe) — have been selected. 

On the first day of the workshop in Maiduguri, Jos, and Kaduna, the fellows were introduced to HumAngle’s newly developed Standards of Journalism Excellence and Advocacy guide. The guide covers conflict-sensitive reporting, accountability, countering disinformation, digital safety, and solutions journalism. 

According to Abdussamad Ahmad, HumAngle’s Security & Policy Analyst, the manual was designed to support journalists and advocates working in conflict-affected regions where ethical clarity and accuracy are critical. 

The workshops also examined the role of community journalists, who often serve as the first witnesses to social issues and crises within their localities. Their proximity to affected populations positions them to capture realities that shape public understanding. Other sessions focused on data-driven storytelling, mapping community challenges, and identifying collaborative solutions.

Hassana Danyerwa, Founder of the FeelNHeal Initiative, said she found the sessions valuable. “We all need emotional hygiene, not just for our bias but also for our ego,” she said.

Through her initiative, Hassana provides psychosocial support to communities and individuals, and noted that the session reinforced the importance of maintaining emotional balance when reporting sensitive issues.

Building on this, fellows also reflected on the broader difficulties of reporting in environments shaped by insecurity, misinformation, and public mistrust. Facilitators encouraged them to approach their work with precision, empathy, and a strong commitment to verification, particularly when documenting the experiences of vulnerable groups.

As the North East workshop continues, sessions for North Central and North West fellows concluded on Nov. 13, marking the completion of training for these regions.

The inaugural SCOJA Fellowship cohort features participants from a wide range of local media and advocacy organisations, including WikkiTimes, The Middle Belt Reporters, and Voice of Arewa, among others.

Over the next six months, fellows will report on issues within their communities and execute targeted community advocacy projects. They are also expected to share their learnings within their local organisations, further amplifying the impact of the fellowship.

A tragic event shook a compound on Polo Road in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital in northeastern Nigeria, this weekend when 11-year-old Mahmud was found dead after reportedly taking his own life. 

The incident has deeply saddened the local community and raised urgent questions about the unseen struggles young children face.

Mahmud was living with extended relatives because his mother passed away last year. His father, who works as a driver in Abuja, was away, meaning Mahmud was already dealing with the pain of loss and being separated from his immediate family.

The sad event, according to those familiar with the incident, happened right after a senior relative scolded Mahmud for not doing his laundry, a simple house chore. Moments later, younger children in the compound cried out, which drew the attention of neighbours.

Neighbours quickly rushed to the scene and found Mahmud hanging. They brought him down immediately and took him to a hospital, but tragically, he was confirmed dead.

Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Nahum Dasso-Kenneth, confirmed the incident to HumAngle, stating: “We received a report from one Muhammad Sheriff, who resides near Polo Road. At about 11:30 a.m., a boy named Mahmoud Adamu was found dead, apparently having hanged himself using an electric cable tied to a door.”

​Police visited the scene, viewed the boy’s body, and subsequently took him to the State Specialists Hospital, where his death was confirmed.

​”Though we are still investigating the circumstances that led to his death, the remains of the boy have been released to the family to be buried according to Islamic rites,” DSP Dasso added.

Sources familiar with the incident said Mahmud may have practicalised some of the uncensored movies kids are being exposed to these days. 

​“I helped bring down Mahmoud’s lifeless body,” said Usman Ali, a cap laundry attendant whose shop is adjacent to the deceased’s family home. “I found he was drenched in his own urine and faeces, which indicates he struggled in immense pain during the hanging before he died. This struggle suggests he was very much unsure of the dire consequences of the act before he committed it.” 

​”We must exercise extreme caution regarding the content our kids watch on TV and mobile phones, as some may venture into practising the misleading or dangerous behaviours they find online,” he said. 

Ahmed Shehu, a civil society actor and chief executive of Peace Ambassador Centre for Humanitarian and Empowerment (PACHE), opined that “when children live through the violence and horror of war, their minds are deeply damaged, pushing them toward self-harm and even acts like suicide.” 

He said children who witness constant fear, death, and loss deal with a crushed spirit, resulting in serious conditions like depression and PTSD. 

“When this pain becomes too much to handle, they often look for ways to cope – even if those ways are harmful. Self-harm or thinking about suicide can sadly become their desperate escape from overwhelming emotional distress, or a way to feel like they have some control over their suffering.

“We have a fundamental duty to offer strong mental health help and support right now. We must help these young people heal the deep scars of trauma to prevent them from taking such tragic, self-destructive paths,” he said.

Nigeria’s Stolen Classrooms | RSS.com

On The Crisis Room, we’re following insecurity trends across Nigeria.

Between 2014 and 2025, at least 1,880 students have been abducted across Nigeria.

It’s a staggering number on its own, but it becomes even heavier when you realise these are children whose dreams, confidence, and sense of safety have been repeatedly disrupted.

And this tragic pattern continues. Just this Monday, Nov. 17, in Kebbi State, terrorists abducted at least 25 students of the Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga.

Today on The Crisis Room, we talk about the effect of this abduction on children.

Hosts: Salma

Guests: Hauwa Shaffii Nuhu and Professor Auwal Inuwa

Audio producer: Anthony Asemota

Executive producer: Ahmad Salkida

Nigeria is in the news again due to recent attacks by armed groups, involving the kidnapping of many students from schools and an assault on a church service. These events have increased pressure on the Nigerian government, especially after U. S. President Donald Trump hinted at possible military action owing to the reported persecution of Christians in the country.

The attacks lack clear responsibility claims, but they resemble those by gangs seeking ransom. These armed groups, referred to as bandits, use intimidation and violence, abducting victims and escaping into forests. Recently, 25 students were taken from a Muslim girls’ school in Kebbi state, marking the first mass school kidnapping since a larger incident in March 2024. Additionally, another 64 individuals were kidnapped from Zamfara state, and two people were killed during an attack on a church in Kwara state, where 38 worshippers were also abducted with a ransom demand made. On Friday, more students were kidnapped from St. Mary’s Catholic school in Niger state, with reports indicating 52 students taken.

Experts believe these attacks are financially motivated, particularly targeting schools due to weak security. Kidnappers find it easier to demand ransoms from parents willing to pay to get their children back. The northwest of Nigeria is especially plagued by insecurity, with armed groups operating in remote areas. Meanwhile, in the northeast, extremist groups like Boko Haram and ISWAP have caused significant humanitarian crises, resulting in over 2 million displaced persons and many deaths.

Tension in Nigeria also arises from ethnic and religious conflicts, especially in the central regions where the Christian and Muslim populations clash over various issues. Despite claims of specific persecution against Christians, some argue that the situation is more complex and that Muslims also suffer violence. The Nigerian government rejects assertions of complicity in religious violence by security forces.

The U. S. is considering actions to pressure Nigeria into better protecting religious freedoms. Nigeria’s military leads the counter-efforts against these armed groups, with traditional leaders also engaging in peace negotiations. However, attacks continue amid reports of increasing violence, with thousands of civilian deaths this year alone. President Tinubu has dispatched officials to oversee rescue efforts for kidnapped schoolgirls.

With information from Reuters

Huzaifa Abubakar has spent years leading community dialogues on food security and malnutrition, working to support families whose lives have been shaped by conflict and neglect in northeastern Nigeria. Yet, despite his experience, he often felt unprepared for what awaited him in the field.

As Team Lead of the Scaling Up Nutrition Youth Network Nigeria in Borno State, Huzaifa said he regularly engages with individuals who have experienced deep trauma. But he lacked guidance on how to safely navigate conflict-affected areas or engage survivors in ways that honoured their experiences.

That changed after he spent three days at the capacity-building workshop for the inaugural cohort of the Strengthening Community Journalism and Human Rights Advocacy (SCOJA) Fellowship by HumAngle Foundation in Maiduguri, Borno State. 

“I am now equipped to interact with vulnerable people and survivors ethically and sensibly,” he said. “The session on trauma-sensitive reporting stood out for me; still, the whole training was an eye-opener.”

Huzaifa is one of 90 community journalists and local advocacy actors selected for the SCOJA Fellowship, held with support from the Embassy of the Netherlands in Nigeria. The fellows are drawn from nine states across three regions — North West (Kaduna and Kano), North Central (Benue, Niger, Plateau, Nasarawa), and North East (Borno, Adamawa, Yobe).

The six-month fellowship aims to equip participants with skills and knowledge that will improve how they engage, document, and support grassroots issues and initiatives. 

Abdussamad Ahmad, HumAngle’s Security and Policy Analyst, who has coordinated the workshops in the North East and North Central, reminded fellows that their work places them at the earliest point of contact with communities. 

“You remain society’s first responders; your proximity to ordinary people gives you both responsibility and a rare advantage, the ability to shape public understanding with clarity, empathy, and discipline,” he said.

He urged them to cultivate habits of verification, ethical judgment, and emotional awareness, especially when engaging people coping with displacement, loss, or trauma.

The training also featured role-playing exercises and report-writing activities, giving participants space to practise trauma-sensitive engagement, field reporting, and ethical storytelling in realistic scenarios. These hands-on sessions helped fellows translate the concepts learned into practical skills they can immediately apply in their work.

“It was an engaging and insightful session, and I admire how he shared his experiences for us to learn from,” said Mohammed Alamin from Borno Radio Television (BRTV), referring to a session on digital and field safety, which was facilitated by Abdulkareem Haruna, HumAngle’s former Editor for the Lake Chad. 

Abbas Usman, a reporter for PharmaSahel, a local platform reporting on health issues in Borno, said he now feels better prepared to identify and report misinformation, malinformation, disinformation, and fake news. 

Another SCOJA Fellow, Nathaniel Ishaya, a radio producer and presenter from SMK Radio in Maiduguri, added, “The HumAngle training is an eye-opener; it teaches us about many things we are only now discovering in journalism. Although I studied journalism, this is the first time I got this firsthand.”

The recently concluded workshops, held between Nov. 10 – 19 in Jos (Plateau State), Kaduna, and Maiduguri (Borno State), mark the first phase of the programme. The next stage will involve fieldwork, during which fellows are expected to implement community projects, document local issues, and work with their organisations to pursue practical solutions rooted in human dignity and accountability. They will also share their learnings with colleagues to broaden the fellowship’s impact.

During this period, HumAngle will continue to support the fellows with resources and mentorship to strengthen their work at the grassroots level.

Nov. 21 (UPI) — The Christian Association of Nigeria said 215 Catholic school students in Central Nigeria were kidnapped on Friday by a group of armed men.

The attackers also kidnapped a dozen teachers from the religious school in the north-central Niger State, CNN reported.

Many students managed to escape, and their parents began picking them up before the school closed, Niger State CAN Chapter leader Rev. Bulus Dauwa Yohanna told media.

CAN officials are working with the government and its security agencies to safely return the abducted children and teachers, a CAN spokesman said.

It’s the second mass abduction of school students this week in the West African coastal nation.

According to police, the pupils were taken when armed “bandits” stormed the St. Mary’s School in Papiri and forced students out of their hostel sleeping space.

Boarding schools already were closed by state authorities in a large part of the country due to concern over rising security threats following a renewed string of attacks by militant groups.

The incident occurred after more than 20 Muslim schoolgirls were kidnapped Monday from a different boarding school in the neighboring Kebbi state.

But officials said St. Mary’s, in Nigeria’s largest state of Niger, defied the order to close despite intelligence warnings by the Nigerian government.

“Regrettably, St. Mary’s School proceeded to reopen and resume academic activities,” they told the BBC in a statement.

“Without notifying or seeking clearance from the state government, thereby exposing pupils and the staff to avoidable risk,” Nigerian officials stated.

The mass kidnappings came on top of U.S. President Donald Trump‘s threat to issue strikes against Islamic extremists in Nigeria, such as ISWAP and Boko Haram, which are currently engaged in ongoing armed conflicts for control of sovereign territory with various militarized groups, described as “bandits,” across the West African country.

Boko Haram is designated by the United States as a terrorist organization.

On Wednesday, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said he was “fully apprised” of the “recent uptick in violent extremism in pockets across the country.”

“And I have directed our security agencies to respond with urgency, clarity, and decisive action. Our forces need the full cooperation of every community. Sharing information can save lives and protect our children,” Tinubu posted on social media.

Tinubu said that Nigeria was canceling plans to participate in the looming G20 and AU-EU summits in South Africa and Angola, respectively.

Boko Haram attacked Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) members in the Warabe community in Gwoza Local Government Area, Borno State, North East Nigeria, on Thursday, Nov. 20, at about 10:00 am, killing eight people and leaving three others missing, according to a CJTF member in Warabe. 

“All the members killed are part of the CJTF, except for one,” a local told HumAngle..

Warabe has no permanent military presence, and the CJTF serve as the community’s frontline defence as the Boko Haram crisis continues to endure almost a decade after it started. They had gone out earlier in the day to collect firewood when Boko Haram attacked them.

According to locals, the group arrived on five motorcycles, with about 20 fighters armed with machine guns, while several others advanced on foot. The hunters engaged them in a gunfight, but the militants overpowered them after their ammunition ran out.

After killing the CJTF members, they took their weapons and used the victims’ mobile phones to lure other hunters, pretending to request help. By the time reinforcements arrived, Boko Haram had already withdrawn with the stolen weapons.

Three hunters remain missing and are believed to have been taken. The nearest military base is located in Pulka, approximately 7 kilometres from Warabe, while Gwoza town is situated roughly 15 kilometres away. Residents say the absence of soldiers in Warabe leaves them exposed during such attacks.

HumAngle reported in 2024 how youths in Warabe, with only seven pump-action rifles among them, defended their community when the first attack came, showing a history of resilience despite being under-armed.

The terrain around the town plays a huge role in why attacks persist. The Mandara Mountains stretch across Gwoza and serve as a natural hideout for fighters who move in and out of Nigeria through rugged footpaths that link the area to Cameroon. These mountain corridors give Boko Haram a strategic advantage, allowing them to launch quick raids on villages and vanish before security forces arrive.

Nigeria remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for students.

Being a student in Nigeria is like life on the shifting sand. One of the victims of the famous Chibok abduction of 2014, Amina Ali, still recalls that shift: “One minute we were students, the next we were running, unsure of where safety was. What stays with me most is the fear in everyone’s eyes … that feeling that life had just taken a turn I could never prepare for.”

A decade after Amina and 275 other schoolgirls were abducted from their hostels in the country’s North East, sparking the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign, the violence that began as an extremist campaign against Western education has transformed into a multi-million-naira kidnapping industry affecting both public and private schools.

This tragic pattern repeated itself in Kebbi State on Monday, Nov. 17, where terrorists abducted at least 25 students of Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Danko/Wasagu Local Government Area. The school’s Security Master, Hassan Yakubu, and Aliyu Shehu, a night watchguard, were killed in the attack. One of the students escaped during the abduction. 

The Chief of Army Staff has since directed troops to intensify rescue efforts — a move that highlights, yet again, how overstretched security forces currently are in responding to the surge in school-targeted abductions and other forms of criminality.

But even as the search continues, the wider picture remains grim. A HumAngle review of verified media reports and investigations by human rights organisations shows that at least 1,880 students have been abducted or killed across Nigeria between 2014 and 2025.

These attacks have devastated communities across the country, especially in the North, and symbolise the collapse of security in spaces that should nurture the country’s future. From the ideological terror of Boko Haram in Yobe and Borno to the ransom-driven criminality of terrorist groups in Zamfara, Kaduna, and Niger, schools have become soft targets in a nation that has failed to learn from each tragedy.

The forgotten beginning 

Yet before the Chibok abduction shocked the world, there was Buni Yadi — a quiet town in Yobe State that witnessed one of the most gruesome assaults on education in Nigeria’s recent history. On the night of February 25, 2014, Boko Haram stormed the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, killing 29 male students as they slept.

HumAngle’s earlier reporting reconstructed the night through survivor accounts: dormitories set ablaze, gunmen shouting “Allahu Akbar”, and teenagers trapped in locked hostels consumed by fire and bullets. 

It was a deliberate massacre — not for ransom, not for negotiation — but to send a message that “Western education is forbidden”. The world barely noticed. Two months later, Boko Haram struck again, this time abducting 276 schoolgirls from Chibok.

Buni Yadi, therefore, stands as the forgotten beginning of Nigeria’s school-terror era — an early signal of what would follow when ideological war met state neglect. One of the boys who survived, Mohammed Ibrahim, would eventually graduate from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in Bauchi State. His journey underscores how survival is not an end but the start of a long struggle to reclaim education and self. Mohammed did not have an easy time going back to school after his experience of the massacre. 

“Honestly, after the incidents, I hated school,” he said. “Many things contributed to the attack. Firstly, there was a lack of security. Before the incident, there was no single security personnel in the area; they said they would provide, but none were around. They took away the ones operating in the area; people were saying that it means there was no safety since they took away the security personnel in the area.”

From ideology to industry

Six years after the Buni Yadi and Chibok incident, armed groups and terrorists in Nigeria’s North West realised that abducting students brought instant ransom, political leverage, and media attention. What began as religious fundamentalism had by then morphed into an extortionist criminal enterprise.

In December 2020, the first large-scale operation of this kind happened at Government Science Secondary School Kankara, where 344 boys were abducted from their school dormitories by terrorists. Within days, video footage surfaced showing the terrified boys surrounded by their abductors, who pledged allegiance to Boko Haram — a claim later linked to a loosely affiliated terrorist faction.

That single event inspired copycat kidnappings across the region: Jangebe (Zamfara, 2021), Kagara (Niger, 2021), Tegina (Niger, 2021), and Birnin Yauri (Kebbi, 2021).

In Birnin Yauri, the day began like any other exam morning. Rebecca James, one of the abducted students, said she was 30 minutes into writing her paper for the day, Financial Accounting, when the first sounds came — distant gunshots, shouts, and the sudden rush of feet. “I was confused because it sounded strange,” she recalled.

As the students scrambled for safety, Rebecca tried to find her sisters in the chaos, but a teacher ordered everyone back into the hall so they could be “in one place”. The gunshots, however, grew closer, and students hid in the side rooms until the main door was forced open. “They continued shooting guns — ceilings, everywhere — helter-skelter,” she said. The terrorists kicked down doors, dragged terrified students from hiding, and fired into windows, injuring at least one student in the leg before marching a group towards the gate and loading them into a white car. “Last last, we were kidnapped,” she summed up.

Unlike the ideological attacks of Boko Haram, many of these more recent operations are driven by ransom and carried out by local militia networks with deep knowledge of their terrain and communities. Yet for the children at the centre, the distinction between ideology and crass greed is irrelevant; in both cases, the classroom becomes a trap. And this trap is often sprung most brutally on girls.

Girls as primary targets

In school abduction incidents where gender data is available, girls accounted for nearly two-thirds of all abducted students. This imbalance stems mainly from the targeting of all-female schools — a pattern rooted in both ideological and exploitative motives. Key examples include:

• Chibok (2014) – 276 girls abducted by Boko Haram; 98 remain unaccounted for.
• Dapchi (2018) – 110 girls taken, Leah Sharibu remains in captivity.
• Jangebe (2021) – 279 girls kidnapped, later released after government negotiation.

For girls like Rebecca, gender was explicitly weaponised. During her captivity, she remembers being told that their abductors would hold onto the girls because they were “more important than the male” — more valuable for ransom and more painful for families to lose. “They were saying we are the female ones … they said that the female ones, if they stayed long in a place, parents will feel more,” she said. 

Rebecca and other girls were also forcefully married off during captivity. They suffered repeated sexual abuse that led to some of them, one as young as 14, getting pregnant and giving birth. Even after their release, the terror group reached out, wanting the babies returned to them.

In contrast, the Kankara and Birnin Yauri abductions targeted boys’ or mixed schools, indicating that while both genders are vulnerable, female students face compounded risks — sexual violence, forced marriage, and sex trafficking.

The gendered nature of these attacks has left deep scars on communities, where parents now weigh the risks of educating daughters against the supposed safety of keeping them at home. 

For some survivors, the experience has hardened their resolve to fight back through education itself. Rebecca, who was once an accounting student, has switched to the arts with a clear goal: “I changed … just to study law,” she explained, adding that it will enable her to defend the vulnerable, especially girls. 

Geographical spread and shifting threats

In 2014, attacks on schools were primarily confined to the North East — Borno and Yobe — under the shadow of Boko Haram. By 2020, they had shifted westward to the North West and North Central regions, reflecting the fragmentation of armed groups and the spread of insecurity.

This expansion reshaped the threat landscape:

• North East (Boko Haram and ISWAP): Attacks driven by ideology, targeting state education systems and female students.
• North West (terrorists and armed groups): Abductions motivated by ransom, tribal vendettas, and power projection.
• North Central, especially in Niger and Kaduna: Mixed motives — ransom, political signalling, and territorial assertion.

This diffusion of violence has complicated response strategies. Each zone now faces a different kind of threat, with varying ideological, economic, and criminal drivers — all converging on the same target: students. 

For many pupils in rural areas, this unpredictability shapes daily life, as rumours of an impending attack now spread as fast as exam timetables. 

“Anytime students hear about terrorists, they should not doubt whether they are coming or not,” Rebecca advised. “They should immediately leave such areas and go back to their homes for safety, not waiting until they see the terrorists  with their own eyes.”

The human cost

Every figure in the tally masks a story of trauma. Survivors of Buni Yadi, Chibok, Dapchi, Birnin Yauri, and Kuriga describe recurring nightmares, social stigma, and broken dreams. For some, school can no longer be taken for granted. 

“Education used to feel simple — just books, teachers, friends,” Amina said. “But, after the attack, I now see my future as something I must fight for … I want to prove that what happened will not destroy the dreams I still carry inside me.”

Rebecca echoes that determination, but channels it into a specific ambition. Her anger is directed at what she sees as terrorists who wield more firepower than the state. “These terrorists have guns more powerful than military personnel here in Nigeria, which makes it the government’s fault,” she said. Her response was to lean harder into school, not away from it: “The incident made me more eager to read and learn about my country.”

Many who returned found their schools destroyed or abandoned. Some struggle with reintegration, unable to sit in classrooms without flashbacks. Others, particularly girls who bore children in captivity, face rejection from their families and communities.

Hafsat Bello, a counsellor working with young students in northern Nigeria, said: “The school, which was once seen as a means to a brighter future, is now viewed to be the most dangerous place for students. Children with dreams so beautiful now fear the very garden where their dreams would bloom. The biggest gap is that the Safe Schools Initiative is still largely theoretical in many communities. Policies exist on paper, but implementation is weak and inconsistent.”

In many of these communities, enrolment has dropped dramatically. UNICEF estimates that over 10.5 million Nigerian children are out of school, with the majority concentrated in the North, where insecurity is a leading driver. 

In 2014, the Safe Schools Initiative (SSI) was launched to prevent the collapse of schools. More than $20 million was pledged by donors and had all been received as of 2o20. The initiative was managed through the Nigeria Safe Schools Initiative Multi-Donor Trust Fund, which was overseen by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for contributions, disbursements, and project implementation.

The funds were used for various projects, including the construction of fences, classrooms, and the provision of emergency communication tools. 

However, the implementation of these projects was uneven. While some urban and semi-urban schools benefited, many rural schools still lacked basic safety infrastructure, according to a 2021 report by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) and the Development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC). 

The report noted that many schools were still without perimeter fencing, trained guards, and emergency response systems. A steering committee, which included representatives from both donor organisations and the government, audited the SSI project to determine its efficacy. Although financial statements were made available, the NILDS-dRPC report revealed notable deficiencies in monitoring and accountability. The report shows that many projects did not undergo independent audits and that there was a lack of transparency regarding the allocation of funds at the state and local levels. 

“For this initiative to truly work, every school must have real physical protection, early-warning and rapid-alert systems, continuous emergency-response training, and a transparent accountability system that tracks how safety funds are used,” said Hafsat.

For Nura Suleiman, the Vice Principal (Academic) at Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS) Jangebe, Zamfara State, the scars of abduction and violence against schoolchildren are beyond emotional trauma, as it has dampened the morale of pupils towards education.

“From my experience, abduction and attacks affected students’ willingness to return to classrooms negatively,” Suleiman told HumAngle. “Especially in the rural northern communities where most of the students ran out of the school.”

The 2021 mass abduction of schoolgirls from Jangebe remains a haunting reminder of the vulnerability of Nigeria’s educational institutions. Despite the launch of the Safe Schools Initiative, Suleman believes the gaps remain vivid due to poor implementation.

“The practical steps which could make schools genuinely safer are to stop insurgency in the country by any means,” he said. “I mean either by fighting or negotiation.”

Suleiman emphasised that school safety encompasses more than just physical infrastructure. He explained that proper safety can only be achieved when students, teachers, and communities feel secure in their environment. 

The principal noted that his school has made efforts to boost students’ morale and encourage their return to the classrooms. In collaboration with the NEEM Foundation, a leading crisis response organisation working with individuals and communities affected by violence, GGSS Jangebe’s Guidance and Counselling department provides mental health support to students who have survived abduction. 

Yet the Jangebe experience also underscores a broader pattern: the support offered to survivors varies sharply from one case to another, leaving many children without the continuity of care they need.

Uneven support, unequal recovery

What happens after rescue reflects this inconsistency. For some, like Rebecca, there has been a rare attempt at comprehensive care.

On her return from captivity, she and other released students were taken to the hospital for medical treatment and meals, then eventually placed in placements in what she calls “the best and most expensive school in Nigeria”. She describes feeling “special every day because of what they have done for us,” noting that the authorities provide a pocketful of stuff and check in on their health.

Crucially, she says, they were encouraged to believe it was not too late to restart school after two lost years. Counsellors and guardians stressed that “age is just a number” and that education remained open to them if they chose it. She repeatedly cites the role of a mentor she calls ‘Brother Celine’, who helped them return to the classroom. “I cannot stop thanking the government for everything they have done for us,” she said.

Amina’s post-rescue experience tells a different story. For her, life after returning has been, in her words, “a mix of hope and struggle”. Some organisations offered counselling, tuition, or basic supplies, but she and many other Chibok survivors still feel like they are rebuilding essentially on their own: “The emotional healing, the financial challenges, the need for real protection — these things are still not fully met. We are grateful for any help, but there is still a long road ahead.” 

The contrast between these two trajectories — one shaped by sustained, structured support, the other by patchy assistance and lingering vulnerability — mirrors the broader inconsistency of Nigeria’s approach. Where you were abducted from, which government was in power, which NGO took an interest, and how much media attention your case drew can determine how fully you are allowed to rebuild your life.

Lessons from a decade of failure

The testimonies of survivors sharpen the picture that the statistics already suggest. 

The Buni Yadi massacre, for example, was an early alarm that signalled a war on education, yet the failure to strengthen school protections afterwards allowed abductions to spread with little resistance. As the crisis deepened, a ransom economy took root. Kidnappings became a lucrative enterprise in which armed groups in Zamfara and Kaduna negotiated openly, collecting payments that financed further attacks and entrenched the cycle.

These dynamics have been worsened by persistent security gaps. Response times remain slow, intelligence sharing between states and federal forces is inconsistent, and rural policing is largely absent. Former hostages notice that their captors often carry superior firepower. “How will a terrorist have a more powerful gun and bullets than soldiers in the military?” Rebecca asked rhetorically—a question that has agitated many Nigerians.

At the policy level, the gaps are just as stark. Nigeria endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration in 2015, yet implementation in the states most affected remains minimal, leaving the lessons of Chibok and Birnin Yauri largely unheeded. 

Gender adds another layer of vulnerability: female students are singled out both ideologically and practically. Rebecca’s recollection that girls were kept because parents “feel more for females” exposes the calculated use of daughters as leverage. 

All of this feeds into a profound erosion of trust. Each attack deepens scepticism about the state’s ability—or willingness—to protect its citizens, weakening the community cooperation that early-warning signals depend on. 

Even where authorities appear to have learnt some operational lessons, such as closing schools pre-emptively when threats arise, the underlying issues of rural insecurity, corruption, and impunity remain largely untouched.

And the consequences of those unresolved failures are visible not only in testimonies and statistics, but also from above. Satellite imagery shows that these classrooms were stolen. It captures a timeline of destruction, militarisation, and neglect that follow these school attacks.

FGC Buni Yadi remains a shadow of its former self. In 2010, it appeared as a modest rural school; by March 2015, the satellite pass captured the aftermath of the massacre — burnt buildings and scorched earth where children once learned. Reconstruction began around late 2018, yet the compound stands today as a restored shell, a reminder that almost everything was set ablaze.

Although GGSS Chibok was not torched, it lost its educational purpose to humanitarian needs after the incident. Over the decade, the school became a shelter for survivors rather than students. The surrounding town is militarised with defensive trenches, and the school vicinity is filled with tents

A similar fate met GSC Kagara. Satellite views show the school ringed by trenches, turning an academic environment into a militarised space.

The warning visible at FGC Birnin Yauri remains unsettling. Unlike other locations where defences appeared after the tragedy, imagery shows this landscape was encircled by trenches long before the abduction. This proves, as reported, that the community lived under the threat well before the attack happened.

For LGEA Kuriga, the view from space captures the slow impact of neglect. There are no burnt structures, but the gradual decay of roofing sheets and fading paint testify to fear-induced neglect. GGSS Jangebe reflects the same pattern: from above, the compound looks orderly, yet ground-level footage — including scenes from a BBC Africa Eye documentary — shows shattered windows, damaged doors, and stripped classrooms. It appears intact only from a distance.

A few affected schools, such as Greenfield University, GSSS Kankara, and Dapchi, bear no visible scars from space. No scorched earth or defensive trenches. Their normal appearance is misleading, showing that the most profound scars of Nigeria’s mass school abductions often lie beyond what satellites can record.

A nation still unprepared

Despite years of promises, Nigeria remains reactive rather than proactive in matters of insecurity. Officials still rush to the scenes of abductions, issue statements of condemnation, and announce task forces — only for the cycle to repeat months later.

In communities like Buni Yadi, buildings have been reconstructed, but the psychological wounds remain. Survivors grow into adulthood carrying invisible wounds, while new students study under the same shadow of fear.

The Kuriga abduction of March 2024, in which 227 pupils were taken, shows that little has changed. Although 137 were eventually rescued, the incident underscores how unprotected rural schools remain — and how quickly armed groups can strike, even with military presence nearby. 

For survivors such as Mohammed Ibrahim, simply graduating from university is an act of quiet defiance. For Amina and Rebecca, returning to the classroom and choosing careers in law or public service is a way of pushing back against those who tried to silence them.

But their determination does not diminish the responsibility of the state; it underscores it. Amina offers a clear warning to those in power: “Do not wait until it happens again … protect those schools like your own children are inside them.”

She believes Nigeria has learnt “some lessons, but not enough”. Continued reports of attacks and abductions, like the recent incident in Kebbi, reinforce this for her. “Until schools in every region are safe, until security becomes a priority and not a reaction, the risks will continue,” she said.

Na’empere Daniel, who survived the Birnin Yauri abduction alongside Rebecca after years in captivity, has similar thoughts. “Sometimes, it feels like Nigeria hasn’t fully learned from what happened to us,” she said. “Our pain should have changed things, but many students are still living through the same fear. No one deserves to experience what we went through.”

The violence has evolved, but the state’s response has barely shifted. Until education is treated as a security priority rather than a social service, the classrooms of northern Nigeria will remain haunted by ghosts of unprotected children.

The question now is not whether it will happen again, but when and to whom it will happen. Survivors like Rebecca and Amina have done their part: they remember the gunshots in the exam hall, the fear in their classmates’ eyes, the long nights of captivity — and they have turned those memories into vocal demands for justice and protection.

Whether Nigeria listens — and acts — will determine if the next generation can learn without fear, or if more of its classrooms will be stolen.

To make learning more resilient, Hafsat Bello, the counsellor who works with young students, stresses the need to adapt education to current realities. She highlights the importance of flexible learning models, noting that “in conflict zones, learning should not stop simply because the physical school is unsafe,” suggesting mobile classrooms, community hubs, radio lessons, or temporary safe spaces to keep children engaged.

Hafsat also underscores trauma-informed teaching, explaining that teachers need training to recognise signs of trauma and adjust their approach, because “a child who has witnessed violence will not learn the same way as a child who feels safe.” She emphasises that every school, particularly in high-risk areas, must have clear emergency response plans in addition to standard timetables.

Teachers themselves require protection and support, including emotional care, hazard allowances, and a sense of security, as their stability directly impacts students’ learning. She further calls for strong collaboration between schools, security agencies, and communities, stressing that education cannot operate in isolation and must be supported consistently, not only after attacks.

“Education must evolve to meet the reality of the children we serve. If we want to protect their futures, then resilience must be built into the system, not as an afterthought, but as a priority,” the counsellor added. 

Kanu’s Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) wants a swathe of the southeast, the homeland of the Igbo ethnic group, to split from Nigeria.

A Nigerian court has convicted separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu on charges related to “terrorism” after a years-long trial.

In his ruling on Thursday, Nigerian Judge James Omotosho said prosecutors proved that Kanu’s broadcasts and orders to his now-banned Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group incited deadly attacks on security forces and citizens in the southeast.

The violence was part of his push for an independent Biafra state for the ethnic Igbo-dominated region.

“His intention was quite clear, as he believed in violence. These threats of violence were nothing but terrorist acts,” Omotosho said.

Kanu, who has been in custody since his controversial re-arrest in Kenya in 2021, shouted angrily in objection to the proceedings and was ejected from court ahead of the ruling. He had argued that his unlawful extradition from Kenya undermined any chance of a fair trial.

Kanu pleaded not guilty in 2021 to seven charges that included “terrorism”, treason and perpetuating falsehoods against Nigeria’s former President Muhammadu Buhari.

Kanu was first arrested in 2015, but fled the country while on bail. His social media posts during his absence and his Radio Biafra broadcasts outraged the government, which said they encouraged attacks on security forces.

Ultimately, security agents brought Kanu to court in Abuja in June 2021 after detaining him in Kenya, where his lawyer alleged he was mistreated. Kenya has denied involvement.

In October 2021, Kanu’s lawyers argued that his statements on Radio Biafra shouldn’t be admissible in a Nigerian court since they were made in London.

“I can’t see how someone would make a statement in London and it becomes a triable offence in this country,” Kanu’s lawyer Ifeanyi Ejiofor told reporters at the time.

Kanu, a dual Nigerian-British citizen, started Radio Biafra – an obscure, London-based radio station – in 2009 after he left Nigeria to study economics and politics at the London Metropolitan University.

In one broadcast, Kanu said: “We have one thing in common, all of us that believe in Biafra, one thing we have in common, a pathological hatred for Nigeria. I cannot begin to put into words how much I hate Nigeria.”

IPOB wants a swathe of the southeast, the homeland of the Igbo ethnic group, to split from Nigeria. An attempt to secede in 1967 as the Republic of Biafra triggered a three-year civil war that killed more than one million people.

Bola Tinubu says he suspended the trip in light of the abductions and a separate church attack in which armed men killed two people.

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has postponed his trip to South Africa for the Group of 20 summit, promising to intensify efforts to rescue 24 schoolgirls abducted by armed men earlier this week.

The president’s spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, said in a statement on Wednesday that Tinubu suspended his departure in light of the girls’ abduction and a separate church attack in which gunmen killed two people.

Tinubu had been set to leave on Wednesday, days before the two-day summit of the world’s leading rich and developing nations was due to begin on Saturday.

“Disturbed by the security breaches in Kebbi State and Tuesday’s attack by bandits against worshippers at Christ Apostolic Church, Eruku, President Tinubu decided to suspend his departure” to the G20 summit, Onanuga said.

It was not clear immediately if or when Tinubu would leave for the weekend summit in Johannesburg.

Search for abducted girls ongoing

The schoolgirls were abducted by unidentified armed men from a secondary school in the northwestern town of Maga in Kebbi State late on Sunday night.

The attackers exchanged gunfire with police before scaling the perimeter fence and abducting the students.

One of the girls managed to escape, authorities said, but the school’s vice principal was killed. No group immediately claimed responsibility for abducting the girls, and their motivation was unclear.

Authorities say the gunmen are mostly former herders who have taken up arms against farming communities after clashes between them over strained resources.

In a separate attack on a church in western Nigeria on Tuesday, armed men killed two people during a service that was recorded and broadcast online.

Supporters of United States President Donald Trump have seized on the violence to embolden their claim that Christians are under attack in Nigeria.

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 more Muslims have been killed in the country’s various security crises.

Two days after they were abducted from their beds by armed attackers, 24 Nigerian schoolgirls are still missing as the military intensifies its efforts to rescue them.

Award-winning rapper Nicki Minaj has publicly backed President Donald Trump’s allegations that Christians face persecution in Nigeria.

“In Nigeria, Christians are being targeted,” Minaj said on Tuesday at an event organised by the US, adding: “Churches have been burned, families have been torn apart… simply because of how they pray.”

Analysts say that jihadists and other armed groups have waged campaigns of violence that affect all communities in the West African nation, regardless of background or belief.

This week alone, two people were killed in an attack on a church, while a group of 25 girls, who the BBC has been told are Muslim, were abducted from a school.

Two of the girls later managed to escape from their abductors. A teacher and a security guard – both Muslim – were also killed in the attack on the secondary school in the north-western Kebbi state.

Earlier this month, Trump said he would send troops into Nigeria “guns a-blazing” if its government “continues to allow the killing of Christians”.

Minaj, whose real name is Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, told an event organised by the US embassy to the UN in New York that calling for the protection of Christians in Nigeria was “not about taking sides or dividing people… but about uniting humanity”.

“This is about standing up in the face of injustice. It’s about what I’ve always stood for,” she added.

The 42-year-old rapper, who has previously spoken of her Christian faith, thanked Trump for “prioritising this issue and for his leadership”.

The Nigerian government has pushed back on these claims, describing them as “a gross misrepresentation of reality”.

An official said that “terrorists attack all who reject their murderous ideology – Muslims, Christians and those of no faith alike”.

Other groups monitoring political violence in Nigeria say most victims of the jihadist groups are Muslims.

The country’s 220 million people are roughly evenly split between followers of the two religions, with Muslims in the majority in the north, where most attacks take place.

On Wednesday, Nigeria police in the south-western Kwara state confirmed a deadly attack on a church in the town of Eruku, where gunmen opened fire on worshipers the previous day, killing two people and abducting several others.

Local media say armed men, identified by residents as bandits, stormed the Christ Apostolic Church during an evening programme on Tuesday evening, shooting the pastor and rounding up worshipers at gunpoint.

Images and short video clips – believed to be from the church’s CCTV cameras – have circulated widely online, showing terrified worshippers scrambling for safety, including an elderly woman seen desperately trying to escape the gunmen.

On Tuesday, President Bola Tinubu confirmed that jihadist forces had killed a senior army officer, after he had been captured in an ambush.

The Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap) said on Monday its fighters had killed Brigadier General Musa Uba in the north-eastern state of Borno.

The Nigerian army had earlier denied that the officer had been abducted and killed.

The latest attacks have triggered frustration and anger across Nigeria, with many lamenting what they see as an unending wave of insecurity affecting rural communities, churches, schools and major transport routes.

Minaj described Nigeria as “a beautiful nation with deep faith traditions” and even acknowledged the “beautiful Barbz” – her fans – in the West African country.

The US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, thanked the rapper for “leveraging her massive platform to spotlight the atrocities against Christians in Nigeria”.

For months, right-wing campaigners and politicians in Washington have been alleging that Islamist militants were systematically targeting Christians in Nigeria.

But the BBC has found that some of the data being relied on to come to this conclusion is difficult to verify.

Deadly disputes are also often over vital resources like land and water or fuelled by inter-ethnic tensions, rather than religion, say analysts.

No one really expects to be defrauded by someone dressed like an army officer.  Ikanyi Stephen certainly didn’t. But last year, at his small point-of-sale (POS) stand in Nyanya Park, Abuja, in North Central Nigeria, a man in military uniform approached him, seemingly with an innocent intention of withdrawing cash. Unknown to Stephen, the uniformed customer had foul play.

“He wanted ₦300,000,” Stephen recalled. “And the day he came, there were two other customers. My [sales assistant] was trying to attend to him,  and since I was with another customer, I couldn’t monitor them. Some customers like to hold the device to see if their transaction is successful, and that’s what I assumed the officer was doing. He slotted his card, entered his PIN, and after returning the machine to her, he urged her to hurry and give him his money so he could leave quickly.”

Stephen initially thought the man was simply in a rush, perhaps due to official duties. But it was only after he had left that the POS agent realised the real reason for his hurried departure. “I checked the transactions, but noticed nothing had come through. He had put the wrong PIN and hadn’t paid one naira, but by the time I noticed, I could not trace where he had gone,” he said. 

The incident cost Stephen more than he could have imagined — a quick trick pulled off by someone who knew how to exploit trust. Though the deceit seemed simple, many POS agents in Nigeria are increasingly falling victim to similar digital scams. 

The POS agent crisis

While scammers have long targeted these agents, the issue became more widespread with the rapid growth of the POS business in early 2023. That was the year the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) implemented a cashless policy, which limited the amount of cash that individuals and corporate bodies could withdraw at a time. As the queues in the banking halls grew and ATMs quickly emptied, millions turned to their neighbourhood POS agents for transactions.

By the end of that year, the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) reported that POS transactions had reached record heights, with a 27.85 per cent increase from 2022 and approximately ₦10.73 trillion transacted. The transactions have continued to rise since then, and as of 2025, NIBSS reported that  POS transfers reached a record-breaking ₦10.75 trillion in the first quarter of the year.

There are thousands of POS agents per square kilometre in the country, who process approximately ₦4.87 billion per hour. These agents are responsible for essential financial services, especially in rural areas where banks are scarce. The POS business provides steady, flexible employment that doesn’t require workers to possess intricate skills.

As favourable as the line of work is to the country, however, fraud, like what Stephen encountered, taints the endeavour. Although what happened to him appears straightforward, more sophisticated means of defrauding POS agents have raised growing concerns among the community, all of which is spurred on by the growing digital age.

Sunday Ohoji, an investigator at the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), told HumAngle that far more digital POS scams have occurred in recent years than physical thefts. “The increase in digital trends and information technology has led to an increase in the vices attached to them. POS scams are one such vice,” he said.

A common scam related to POS transactions is reversal fraud. In this scheme, a POS agent receives a transfer via a card or phone transaction. However, the money that initially appears to be deposited in their account is later reversed, leading to a bounce-back of the funds hours after the customer has left. Several agents believe there are malicious intentions behind these reversals. For instance, a union of POS agents at Jabi Park in Abuja recently warned over 100 of its members to stop permitting phone transactions, as this method is suspected to be the most common way for scams to occur, according to a member of the union.

Fake alerts

Yunusa Adamu, a member of the union, explained the reason for their suspicion after a personal experience left him wary.

“I was sitting at my POS machine, three or four people just came to me, wearing good clothes that would make you think they are reasonable people, even though they aren’t. One of them said he needed about ₦30,000 and asked me to transfer it to him so he could receive the cash. It didn’t go through, so his friend quickly stepped in and did the transfer,” he recounted.

“Without even pressing my phone too much, I received an alert stating that the money had entered my account, but it was a fake alert. The men quickly said they wanted ₦20,000 of their money to go and buy something, but that they would come back for the rest. When they left, I checked my bank account and realised the money had never actually entered, as the alert had reversed. I sat there till evening, but the men never returned.”

Yunusa said he had no clue how such a scam was possible. He now knows better, especially after another agent, Munkaila Mohammed, spoke bitterly of a similar experience.

“My daughter, Aminatu, gave ₦120,000 to one customer who had made a digital transfer. As he got his money, the man rushed away. Later, when we checked her transactions, we saw that the money had reversed. Till today, nobody knows how scammers are doing it, but we know it’s not a mistake or network error,” Munkaila narrated.

Munkaila was right in his detection of foul play. The rise of digital hacking has led to scammers creating complex systems to defraud unsuspecting POS agents. 

After years of working as an ICPC’s investigations official, Sunday Ohoji has the mechanics of this scheme laid out: “The people who do these scams already have a cloned system that makes it look like they are actually sending money out to the agents,” he explained.

“So what happens is that they give the agent their card to do a transaction, and because the platform the POS operates on  is also internet based, it’s very, very easy for the scammers to reroute whatever transaction they do on that account and card to a dummy account, which automatically generates an alert sent to the POS agent as if a transaction has occurred, but it is not actually tied to the financial system.”

Many customers don’t wait to take such a complicated route. Some swindlers quickly cancel their PIN to avoid paying; others hold the machine and lower the initial cost inputted by the operators. One POS agent, Alice Omenene, recounted how a customer attempted to pay only 1 per cent of what he had promised through this nefarious method.

“One time, one man requested ₦40,000, and I put that price for him in my POS. But little did I know he secretly changed the amount to ₦400 when he got hold of the machine,” she said. “I’ve been defrauded in the past, but this time I caught him. All he kept saying was, ‘I’m a Muslim, I can’t cheat you,’ but I didn’t hear that one. How would I let him go with my money?”

The cost of scams

The cases of POS fraud continue, with a 31.12 per cent increase in 2024, according to the Report of Fraud and Forgeries in Nigerian Banks. However, this problem doesn’t just appear negative on paper. POS agents typically bear the long-term consequences of one-time thefts.

“When I lost ₦300,000, I was so depressed during that period,” said Stephen, “I really planned the money for something special, but when the theft happened, I was stuck. I tried to go through diabolical means to get it back, but I couldn’t dare to do that.”

The negative effects reach beyond just one person. Many of these agents either work for others or buy back the cash they can no longer track, leading to a ripple effect where the consequences of the theft impact other relationships and businesses.

Somalia Nwadiugwu, whose mother was swindled out of ₦30,000 with a fake alert, told HumAngle that the loss impacted their supplier, the one who had given them the cash. “We needed that money to meet up with payments, budgets, and stuff. The man who sold my mum cash needed some of his profit. It’s just because he was nice that he gave us time to pay it back, but he complained that he also had children to feed, and this was seriously limiting him.”

No way out?

Despite the extensive challenges they face, many POS agents are reluctant to pursue other employment opportunities, claiming that no alternative jobs are available to them. With a striking 86 per cent of Nigeria’s working population engaging in self-employment and non-paid jobs, according to the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, it is evident that the lack of formal job opportunities is a significant issue for many individuals in the country.

David Aliyu*, a POS agent at Kabusa, who regularly loses between ₦5,000 and ₦10,000, sees no viable way to leave the business that has caused him so much financial loss. “No man can stay without doing something,” he told HumAngle. “That’s why some people keep on pushing with this business the way it is. In any business, there is loss, even Dangote [referring to the richest Black man] loses daily, more than POS people, I’m sure.”

Alice expressed a similar sentiment, saying, “This is where I’ve found myself, and it’s all that God has given me to do. Every morning, I pray not to fall for any 419 scam and that no scammer will see me. In this POS business, it’s not about being too wise; this scamming thing is an experience. You bring your head down, calm down, and pray.”

Prayer appears to be a common form of self-protection among those who have been scammed, as many POS agents refuse to seek external help, not trusting the Nigerian system to provide them with adequate assistance. 

When Stephen lost ₦300,000, it seemed natural that his next course of action would be to seek official intervention, but when he tallied the cost of processing it, he decided it was wiser to keep the matter to himself.

“If you have a loss and you want to seek help from the court, they’ll ask you to provide an affidavit. And sometimes, in processing the case, you spend more money. With those two things, you’ll still be spending more money than you lost. So the money you spend on getting help, along with the time lost trying to get that help, is almost equivalent to what you lost. So you just let it go,” he said.

Some members don’t even get to court. The cost of travelling to get help often halts them in their search for aid. Charity Eze*, a POS agent in Kabusa, who lost ₦50,000 after a customer changed the price on her POS from ₦55,000 to ₦ 5,000, explains why she had to make the painful decision to let it go. 

“We didn’t go to court, but because we had the customer’s name, my boss went to the bank. They froze his account and then told my boss he needed to come back again, but the banks are far from us, and the cost of transport is now high. When he calculated everything, he knew he would be at a loss. My boss let it go, but if not for the fact that he was a nice man, I would have had my salary taken away for God knows how long.”

Even without the cost of transport, legal justice still incurs a fee. The Virtual Affidavit Registration System (VARS) allows people to print various Affidavits online. It prices the affidavit of Loss of Documents/Items at ₦5,245. 

This is without going through any other court processes or the issue of extortion with the affidavit system that many complain about. Whether in person or online, expenditures rise higher than many of the losses POS personnel face at once. While some, like Stephen, are unfortunate enough to lose ₦300,000 at a time, most of the POS agents reported petty thefts, ranging from ₦2,000 to ₦10,000. 

While these smaller scams may seem inconsequential enough to let go, over time, these thefts add up, and without proper aid, POS agents may lose more than what they expected, crippling their business in the long run. 

The expensive solution

Ohoji, the ICPC investigator, sees a better way out, saying: “You can report to the police, you can report to the ICPC, you can report to the EFCC, all for free.  A few agents have come forward with genuine reports, and more are expected to follow, as the government is there to support them.

“The government doesn’t just want to help them, but the whole nation, because if they do not handle it immediately, it might become cancerous to the system tomorrow. Therefore, they should address the issue now. So, at every point in time, they should report. When they report, something will be done, even if it’s slow, something will be done,” he said.

He advised POS agents to upgrade their machines to detect cards that are not registered in the financial system. 

“It will go a long way to help curb the issue, because the truth is this: if someone comes and gives you a fake POS transaction and says they’re in a hurry to go, you wouldn’t have time to start checking if it’s genuine, but with an automatic detector, there will be no need to check manually.”

This is a simple solution in theory. In practice, however, few POS agents can afford to upgrade their machines due to their limited earnings. Many of them have reported that on a good day, they make up to ₦5,000, but these occasions are rare. More often than not, they typically make no more than ₦2,000 daily.

One of them, Charity, claimed that sometimes she sits down in the sweltering heat all day and earns only ₦500 for her efforts.

With an average profit of  ₦60,000 monthly, where the market cost of a single POS terminal is  ₦21,500, based on prices gotten from Moniepoint Microfinance Bank, a prominent POS terminal provider, as well as the added expense of buying the cash that will eventually be sold, squeezing in the cost of improvements may not be a viable option for many. 

For now, survival in the minds of many POS agents is a matter of caution and faith, and that seems to be enough for them. With around three million POS terminals existing in Nigeria as of 2024, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and many more popping up daily, it is clear that most POS agents remain unshaken in the face of mounting insecurity. 

*Names marked with an asterisk have been changed to protect the identities of sources. 

The Nigerian Army’s statement that Brigadier General M Uba, the Brigade Commander 25 Task Force Brigade “successfully led troops back to base” after an ambush last Friday, Nov. 14, in the Damboa area of Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, has been challenged by an exclusive, verified image obtained by HumAngle. The image shows the senior officer alive but held by insurgents, contradicting the military’s official account.

The ambush by ISWAP fighters on a joint military and Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) convoy on Biu Road resulted in the deaths of several soldiers and CJTF members, with the general’s whereabouts initially reported as unknown. HumAngle’s early report cited sources on the ground who said the general was abducted during the attack. We later reported that he had escaped on foot and returned to base, after several security sources insisted on this.

The Nigerian Army also issued a statement denying the abduction, insisting the general had safely led his men back to base and that the incident was an ambush, causing casualties but no kidnapping. However, the military provided no evidence to back this claim at the time.

A verified image HumAngle has seen shows the commander in the custody of ISWAP insurgents, with a gunshot wound to the leg. Verification was carried out through detailed frame analysis, geolocation cross-checking, and confirmation from independent security sources familiar with the region and the incident. The image, shortly after the ambush, shows the general surrounded by armed fighters, appearing fatigued but alive. 

HumAngle, in line with our editorial policies, has made the editorial decision not to publish the picture. 

This new evidence directly challenges the army’s public statement, highlighting a significant discrepancy in the information being shared about frontline realities. The contradictory accounts raise concerns about communication gaps within the military and the potential consequences of misinformation for public trust and operational security.

The capture of a serving commander marks a rare and serious development in the ongoing conflict with insurgent groups in Nigeria’s Northeast. In recent months, ISWAP has intensified attacks around Damboa and the wider Borno region, escalating the dangers faced by both military personnel and civilians.

Security analysts who reviewed the image described the abduction as both an operational setback and a symbolic blow to Nigerian forces fighting the insurgency. Families of soldiers deployed in the area have expressed frustration and anxiety over the conflicting reports about their loved ones’ safety.

Efforts to secure fresh comments from the Nigerian Army have been ongoing, but as of publication, no new statement has been issued addressing the emerging evidence.

Terrorists have launched an early-morning attack on the Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, in the Danko Wasagu Local Government Area (LGA) of Kebbi State, North West Nigeria, abducting scores of students.

The assault took place around 4:00 a.m., shortly before dawn prayers. Local sources say the attackers stormed the school premises, killing a staff member and injuring a security guard before escaping with several girls.

Residents of Maga, a community under the Danko Wasagu LGA, with its headquarters in Ribah, told HumAngle that the assailants “have not gone far” and are believed to still be within reach. They are calling for urgent intervention from both the Federal and Kebbi State Governments to prevent the terrorists from disappearing with the abducted students.

Security forces have yet to issue any official statement on the latest mass abduction of school children. 

In recent years, Kebbi State has witnessed a disturbing surge in school abductions, which is part of a broader pattern of insecurity plaguing the northwestern region. The most notorious incident occurred on June 17, 2021, when armed attackers stormed the Federal Government College in Birnin Yauri. The assailants killed a police officer and abducted at least 80 students and five teachers. 

This is a developing story.  

DR Congo reach inter-confederation playoffs for 2026 World Cup after beating favourites Nigeria on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo kept their hopes of a World Cup place alive as they edged Nigeria 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw at the end of extra time to win the African qualifying playoffs in Morocco.

DR Congo now await the draw on Thursday for the inter-confederation playoffs in March where six teams will chase two places at the 48-team finals.

Captain Chancel Mbemba converted the decisive kick on Sunday after Congolese substitute goalkeeper Timothy Fayulu, brought on a minute before the shootout, made two saves in the shootout.

Frank Onyeka had Nigeria ahead in the third minute but Meschack Elia equalised for the two sides to be level 1-1 after extra time.

The mini-tournament in Rabat was for the best runners-up across the nine African qualifying groups, whose fixtures were completed last month with the nine winners automatically booking a berth at the World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States next year.

Nigeria, who have been to six previous World Cups, were off to a perfect start as the Congolese cleared an early cross but only onto the edge of their penalty area where Onyeka snapped up the ball and powered home an effort, helped into the net by a slight deflection off Axel Tuanzebe.

But the Congolese could have been level within nine minutes had Ngal’ayel Mukau not put his close-in effort over the crossbar after Nigeria goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali had flapped at the ball.

They did equalise in the 32nd minute after Alex Iwobi had been stripped of possession inside the Congolese half, and a quick counter saw Cedric Bakambu square for Elia to score despite the efforts of Nigeria captain Wilfred Ndidi to intercept the ball.

A clever backheel at a corner early in the second half from Bakambu saw Nwabali make a sharp stop, and there looked a decent penalty shout for the Congolese as Noah Sadiki was upended by Benjamin Fredrick in the Nigeria box in the 55th minute, but the referee did not show any interest, and there was no VAR check.

DR Congo looked more ambitious as the contest wore on, but it was characterised by a wary approach from both sides, keen not to make any mistakes with so much at stake.

Nigeria needed extra time to get past Gabon in their Thursday semifinal and looked much more fatigued than their opponents, who beat Cameroon inside 90 minutes in their semi later the same night.

There were two opportunities in extra time on either end, with Nigerian substitute Tolu Arokodare heading over and then with the last effort of the game, Mbemba had his effort saved by Nwabali.

DR Congo went on to hold their nerve in the shootout and still have a chance to compete at their first World Cup since 1974, when the country was still known as Zaire.

Egypt, Senegal, South Africa, Ghana, Cape Verde, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Algeria and Tunisia have already qualified directly for the 2026 World Cup from Africa.

Bolivia from South America and New Caledonia from Oceania have already reached the six-team continental playoffs.

In Asia, the UAE host Iraq in their second leg on Tuesday to decide another playoff entrant. The first leg was 1-1.

Also included will be the best two group runners-up from the North American, Central American and Caribbean federation once normally qualifying ends on Tuesday.

Europe has its own playoff system for the remaining non-automatic berths for the 48-team World Cup.