This November has been particularly harsh for Catholic and Muslim communities in Nigeria. In the early morning hours of November 17th, “shortly before morning prayers,” an unknown number of girls were kidnapped by armed men who attacked a girls’ school in the northwest of that African country. The gang members attacked the Maga Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School in the Danko/Wasagu district, Kebbi state. After killing the school’s vice-principal, Malam Hassan Yakubu Makuku – who tried in vain to protect the students – and wounding a security guard, the attackers fled to the neighboring state of Zamfara, taking an undetermined number of girls with them. The area where the kidnapping occurred is part of the Emirate of Zuru and is predominantly Muslim.
