On Wednesday, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu announced a “nationwide security emergency” as officials faced challenges in managing a rise in mass kidnappings that have resulted in the abduction of hundreds of individuals within just a week.
“This is a national emergency, and we are responding by deploying additional personnel on the ground, particularly in areas facing security challenges,” Tinubu stated in a press release.
In recent days, armed groups have abducted two dozen Muslim schoolgirls, 38 worshippers, over 300 students and teachers from a Catholic institution, 13 young girls and women near a farm, and another 10 women and children in various incidents throughout the nation.
While many victims have been rescued or have managed to escape, 265 children and teachers taken from a Catholic boarding school in Niger state on Friday are still missing.
“Given the evolving security situation, I have made the decision to declare a nationwide security emergency and to initiate further recruitment into the Armed Forces,” Tinubu remarked.
Over the weekend, he mandated the reassignment of police VIP bodyguards to essential policing roles and has ordered the recruitment of an additional 50,000 police officers.
As reported by the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA), more than 100,000 of the estimated 371,000-strong police force were previously designated to protect politicians and VIPs.
In addition to a 16-year jihadist insurgency ongoing in the northeast, Nigeria is also afflicted by ongoing insecurity, characterized by frequent kidnappings for ransom.
The first mass abduction that shocked Nigeria occurred in 2014 when the jihadist group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 teenage girls in Chibok, located in the northeast, leading to widespread international condemnation.
Since that time, thousands of kidnappings have taken place, with some remaining unreported.
‘Eliminate terrorists’
For many years, heavily armed criminal organizations have escalated their assaults in the rural regions of northwest and central Nigeria, where the presence of the state is minimal, resulting in the deaths of thousands and the perpetration of kidnappings for ransom.
These organizations maintain camps within a vast forest that spans several states, including Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi, and Niger, from which they initiate their attacks.
Tinubu stated that he was also granting authorization to the intelligence department to “immediately” deploy forest guards to “eliminate the terrorists and bandits hiding in our forests” and to recruit additional personnel for patrolling these areas.
“The situation demands a collective effort,” he remarked.
He pledged to persist in his “efforts to rescue” the students and others who remain in captivity.
In the twelve-month period from July of last year to June 2025, at least 4,722 individuals were abducted in 997 incidents, and at least 762 lost their lives, according to a recent report by SBM Intelligence.
The report indicated that kidnappers sought approximately 48 billion naira in total but only succeeded in obtaining 2.57 billion naira (around $1.66 million).
During this timeframe, “Nigeria’s kidnap-for-ransom crisis evolved into a structured, profit-driven industry,” stated the Lagos-based security advisory firm.
The most recent attacks occurred just weeks after US President Donald Trump warned Nigeria of potential military action due to the alleged mass killings of Christians by radical Islamists.
