Nigeria Declares Nationwide Security Emergency After Wave of Mass Kidnappings

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu declared a nationwide security emergency on Wednesday as authorities scrambled to respond to a spate of mass kidnappings that saw hundreds of people — largely schoolchildren — taken in just one week.

"This is a national emergency, and we are responding by deploying more boots on the ground, especially in security-challenged areas," Tinubu said in a statement, announcing additional recruitment into the armed forces.

In a matter of days, attackers across several states abducted dozens of people in separate incidents: about two dozen Muslim schoolgirls, 38 worshippers, more than 300 pupils and staff from a Catholic boarding school, 13 young women and girls near a farm, and another group of 10 women and children. Dozens have been rescued or escaped, but 265 children and teachers taken from a Catholic boarding school in Niger state remain missing.

Government response

Tinubu ordered the redeployment of police VIP bodyguards back to frontline policing duties and approved the hiring of 50,000 new police recruits. He also authorised intelligence services to immediately deploy forest rangers to "flush out the terrorists and bandits lurking in our forests" and pledged continued efforts to rescue those still held captive.

Officials say that a substantial portion of the country's security personnel were previously assigned to protect politicians and VIPs rather than conduct frontline policing, a factor the government cited in its decision to reassign forces and expand recruitment.

Scope of the violence

Beyond the long-running jihadist insurgency in the northeast, Nigeria faces persistent insecurity across large areas of the northwest and central regions. Heavily armed criminal gangs have established camps in a vast forest that spans several states — including Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi and Niger — from which they launch raids on rural communities.

According to a recent report by SBM Intelligence, between July last year and June 2025 there were at least 997 kidnapping incidents that took 4,722 people, and at least 762 deaths were recorded during that period. The report found kidnappers demanded roughly 48 billion naira in ransoms but collected only 2.57 billion naira (around $1.66 million), and described the kidnap-for-ransom crisis as having "consolidated into a structured, profit-seeking industry."

The latest wave of abductions comes weeks after the U.S. president warned of possible military consequences over reports of large-scale killings of Christians by radical Islamist groups. In response to the recent attacks, Tinubu urged mosques and churches — particularly in vulnerable areas — to seek security when they gather for prayers.

"The times require all hands on deck," he said, emphasizing a stepped-up security posture and promising continued rescue and intelligence operations to dismantle gang camps and disrupt kidnapping networks.