Nigeria’s president postpones G20 trip in light of schoolgirls’ abduction

Nigeria’s president has postponed his trip to this weekend’s G20 summit after promising to intensify efforts to rescue 24 schoolgirls who were abducted by gunmen earlier this week in a north-western region of the country.

President Bola Tinubu had been set to leave for South Africa on Wednesday, days before the summit of the world’s leading rich and developing nations was due to begin.

But Mr Tinubu said that he was suspending his departure in light of the abductions and a separate church attack in which gunmen killed two people, spokesperson Bayo Onanuga said in a statement.

“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, Mr Onanuga said.

It was not immediately clear if or when Mr Tinubu would leave for the summit, which runs over Saturday and Sunday in Johannesburg.

The girls were kidnapped from their dormitory before dawn on Monday, when gunmen attacked their boarding school, the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, in the town of Maga in Nigeria’s Kebbi state.

Local police said that the gunmen scaled the fence to enter the dorm and exchanged gunfire with police officers guarding the school before seizing the girls and killing a staff member.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but analysts and locals say gangs often target schools, travellers and remote villagers in kidnappings for ransom.

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

Dan Juma Umar, a civil society leader in Maga, said that it was not the first time gunmen had attacked the area and that residents had alerted security force members about “suspicious movements” three days before the attack on the school.

“We notified the security operatives of the planned attack. Had they acted on the information we provided, this tragedy could have been avoided,” he told The Associated Press (AP).

Hawau Usman, a 15-year-old student who was among those abducted, had managed to escape.

“They kept moving, and when they left, I ran back to the school,” the youngster told the AP on Tuesday.

“I knocked on the principal’s house, but no-one answered,” she said, adding that she later found refuge at a teacher’s house.

Mr Tinubu said in a statement released late on Tuesday that he has “directed the security agencies to act swiftly and bring the girls back to Kebbi state”.

He expressed regret that the “heartless terrorists have disrupted the education of innocent schoolgirls”.

At least 1,500 students have been abducted in the region since Boko Haram jihadi extremists seized 276 Chibok schoolgirls more than a decade ago. But bandits are also active in the region, and analysts say gangs often target schools to gain attention.

Nigeria has recently been thrust into the spotlight when US president Donald Trump singled the country out, saying Christians were being persecuted — an allegation that the government rejected.

Analysts and residents blame the insecurity on a failure to prosecute known attackers, and the rampant corruption that limits weapons supplies to security forces while ensuring a steady supply to the gangs.