Nigeria's president postpones G20 trip, vowing to step up efforts to rescue abducted schoolgirls

SOKOTO, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria's president postponed his trip to this weekend's Group of 20 summit after promising to intensify efforts to rescue 24 schoolgirls who were abducted by gunmen earlier this week in a northwestern region of the country. Civil society leaders have accused security forces of inaction.

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 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, Onanuga said.

It wasn't immediately clear if or when Tinubu would leave for the summit, which runs Saturday and Sunday in Johannesburg.

The girls were kidnapped from their dormitory before dawn 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, travelers 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 wasn’t the first time that gunmen 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.

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," Usman 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.

Tinubu said in a statement released late 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 been recently thrust into spotlight when U.S. President Donald Trump singled the country out, saying Christians are 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.

Usman Muhammad, whose daughter narrowly escaped the abduction, said his trust in authorities will only be restored if all the remaining girls are rescued. He urged not only for the abducted students to be freed but also for strengthening the security around the school to prevent future attacks.

“The only thing that will revive our trust is the safe rescue of our children," Muhammad, 50, told the AP on Tuesday. "Until the authorities in charge secure the release of the girls still in captivity, we cannot feel at ease.”

Senator Iroegbu, an Abuja-based security analyst, told the AP on Wednesday that the abductors ultimately dictate the terms, but said that he was hopeful the girls would be rescued.

“Intelligence efforts should be prioritized to locate the abductors without endangering the girls. If contact is established, negotiation — likely involving ransom — may be necessary,” he said.

Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Waidi Shaibu met with soldiers in the hours after the attack and directed “intelligence-driven operations and relentless day-and-night pursuit of the abductors,” according to an army statement.

“We must find these children. Act decisively and professionally on all intelligence," he said. "Success is not optional.”

The army chief urged for a collaborative effort by all security outfits, including local vigilantes and hunters, in getting the girls rescued.

Umar Muhammad Rafi, 60, said the military and vigilante groups have been deployed to Maga and the surrounding forests but that the number of vigilantes, who "know the terrain better than the military” are not enough.

Abdulkarim Abdullahi Maga, 52, whose two daughters, ages 12 and 13, were among those abducted on Monday, said that his wife also lost her father — a security guard who was killed by the attackers.

“Since it happened, she has not been eating and is rapidly losing weight,” he said.

Dyepkazah Shibayan reported from Abuja.

A vendor display local newspapers on the street of Lagos with headlines of the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, where gunmen on Monday attacked the school dormitory, abducted schoolgirls, in Kebbi Nigeria, Wednesday, Nov. 19 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba )

A stain of blood is seen on the ground of the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, where gunmen on Monday attacked the school dormitory, abducted schoolgirls, and killed Hassan Yakubu Makuku, vice principal of the school, in Kebbi, Nigeria, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Tunde Omolehin)

Hawau Usman, a 15 year-old student who was kidnapped by gunmen Monday from the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School and managed to escape, is interviewed, in Kebbi, Nigeria, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Tunde Omolehin)

Amina Hassan, wife of the vice principal of the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, where gunmen on Monday attacked the school dormitory, abducted schoolgirls and killed her husband, stands in front of the room where he was killed, in Kebbi, Nigeria, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Tunde Omolehin)

A vendor display local newspapers on the street of Lagos with headlines of the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, where gunmen on Monday attacked the school dormitory, abducted schoolgirls, in Kebbi Nigeria, Wednesday, Nov. 19 2025. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba )

BAGHDAD (AP) — An American journalist who was kidnapped in Baghdad had tried to cross from Syria into Iraq three weeks earlier and was initially turned back, an Iraqi official said Wednesday.

U.S. and Iraqi officials said Shelly Renee Kittleson had also been warned of threats against her in the days before her abduction. A freelance journalist who has worked for years in Iraq and Syria and was described by those who knew her as deeply knowledgeable about the region and the communities she covered, Kittleson was kidnapped from a street in the Iraqi capital Tuesday and remains missing.

Hussein Alawi, an adviser to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said Kittleson had sought to enter via the al-Qaim crossing from Syria on March 9 but was turned back because she did not have a press work permit and because security concerns due to “the escalation of the war and aerial projectiles over Iraqi airspace as a result of the war on Iran.”

She later entered the country after obtaining a single-entry visa to Iraq valid for 60 days issued to allow foreign citizens stranded in neighboring countries to “transit through Iraq to reach their home countries via available transport routes,” he said.

Kittleson entered Baghdad a few days before she was kidnapped and was staying in a hotel in the capital, he said.

“The incident is being followed closely by Iraqi security and intelligence agencies under the supervision of” al-Sudani, Alawi said. He noted that one suspect believed to be involved in the kidnapping plot has been arrested and is being interrogated.

Iraqi security forces gave chase to her captors and arrested one suspect after the car he was driving crashed, but other kidnappers were able to escape with the journalist in a second car.

An Iraqi intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said Iraqi authorities believe she is being held in Baghdad and are trying to locate her and secure her release. He said authorities “have information about the abducting party” but declined to give more details.

U.S. officials have alleged that Kittleson was taken by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-linked Iraqi militia that has been implicated in previous kidnappings of foreigners. The group has not claimed the kidnapping and the Iraqi government has not publicly said anything about the kidnappers' affiliation.

The Iraqi intelligence official said that prior to Kittleson's abduction, Iraqis had contacted U.S. officials to notify them that there was a specific kidnapping threat against her by Iran-affiliated militias.

Dylan Johnson, U.S. assistant secretary of state for public affairs, said on X Tuesday that the “State Department previously fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them.”

A U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said, “She was contacted multiple times with warnings of the threats against her," including as late as the night before the kidnapping.

Kittleson’s mother, 72-year-old Barb Kittleson, who spoke to The Associated Press at her home in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, said she heard about the kidnapping from a news report on Tuesday and was visited by the FBI at her house on Tuesday night.

When asked how she felt about the kidnapping she said, “Terrible. Scared. I’ll pray for her.”

Barb Kittleson said she last exchanged emails with her daughter on Monday. Shelly Kittleson sent photos of herself from Iraq, her mother said.

“Journalism is what she wanted to do so bad,” Barb Kittleson said. “I wanted her to come home and not do it, but she said, ‘I’m helping people.’”

Surveillance footage from Baghdad that was obtained by the AP shows what seems to be the moment the journalist was kidnapped. It shows two men approaching a person standing on a street corner and ushering the person into the back of a car. There appears to be a brief struggle to shut the car door before the men get into the vehicle and it drives away.

Iran-backed militias in Iraq have launched regular attacks on U.S. facilities in the country since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

Bauer reported from Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

The street corner in central Baghdad's Saadoun Street where U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, April 1 2026. (AP Photo/ Hadi Mizban)

U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson poses for a cellphone photo in a cafe in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo)

U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson poses for a cellphone photo in a cafe in Baghdad, Iraq, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo)

A street view shows the street corner in central Baghdad's Saadoun Street where U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, April 1 2026. (AP Photo/ Hadi Mizban)

A street view shows the street corner in central Baghdad's Saadoun Street where U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, April 1 2026. (AP Photo/ Hadi Mizban)