WorldStage— President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed Nigeria’s armed forces, police, and intelligence agencies to conduct an immediate, coordinated rescue operation following a massive and coordinated attack in Niger State.
Gunmen simultaneously raided four mosques during Jumat prayers in the Borgu Local Government Area—specifically targeting the communities of Dakera, Pñena, Sabonira, and Gidan Zana.
An armed group subsequently released a video over the showing approximately 600 abducted victims, comprising mostly women, children, and elderly worshippers.
A local official confirmed that at least 30 people were killed in the initial raid, while over 2,000 residents fled across the porous border into the neighboring Benin Republic to seek safety.
The directive targets the Defence Minister, Chief of Defence Staff, Service Chiefs, Inspector-General of Police, and the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS).
Tinubu has ordered these service chiefs to provide regular tactical updates until every single missing victim is safely accounted for.
The President declared a national security emergency, authorizing forest rangers to launch offensive operations and ordering the redeployment of roughly 100,000 police officers currently assigned as private guards.
Security agencies have scaled up tracking operations in the vast forest corridors surrounding Kainji Lake National Park, which armed criminal networks and militant groups frequently use as hideouts.
Security analysts from regional tracking networks warn that northwest and north-central Nigeria have increasingly become a transit zone for transnational gunmen aligned with Al-Qaeda and Islamic State factions.
This escalation comes on the heels of similar mass abductions across northern Nigeria, forcing the federal government to launch Operation Savannah Shield and deploy army battalions to vulnerable border areas.
