Nigeria, Nov. 18 -- When armed men stormed Government Girls' Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, in Danko/Wasagu Local Government Area of Kebbi State around 4 a.m. on Monday, the assault followed a now-familiar script. By the time the gunfire subsided, 25 schoolgirls had been abducted, the school's vice-principal, Hassan Yakubu Makuku, lay dead, and another staff member was injured.

But beyond the immediate tragedy, the Maga school attack fits into a widening pattern of coordinated bandit incursions spreading across the North-Wes, where rural communities remain exposed despite years of counter-insurgency operations.

This report examines why the Kebbi attack happened and what it reveals about the deepening crisis of school insecurity a...