Unknown gunmen abducted 215 pupils and 12 teachers from St Mary’s Catholic School in the Papiri community of Agwara local government area of Niger state in the early hours of Friday, authorities said — the second major school kidnapping in Nigeria in a week.
Niger state government secretary Abubakar Usman said officials received the “disturbing” news with deep sadness. Police reported the attack happened overnight and said military and other security units were dispatched to the area to begin search operations.
Relatives and witnesses described scenes of panic. Dauda Chekula, 62, told the Associated Press that four of his grandchildren, aged seven to ten, were among those taken. He said those who escaped scattered, some fleeing straight home, while the abductors appeared to be moving the remaining children into nearby bushland.
Niger, the country’s largest state stretching west from Abuja toward Benin, has seen several high-profile school abductions in recent years. This is the third mass school kidnapping recorded there in the past decade: in May 2021 gunmen seized 135 students from an Islamic seminary in Niger state, and six of those abducted later died.
Earlier this week gunmen attacked a girls’ boarding school in neighbouring Kebbi state, abducting 25 pupils and killing the vice-principal. Local reports say security forces had intelligence of a plot and guarded the school overnight but withdrew about 30 minutes before the assault; the state governor also alleged security personnel spent time photographing students before leaving. President Bola Tinubu ordered junior defence minister Bello Matawalle to relocate to Kebbi to support rescue efforts.
No group has claimed responsibility for the recent kidnappings. Analysts and residents say criminal gangs frequently target schools, travellers and isolated communities to extract ransoms. Authorities often describe the attackers as largely former herders who turned to armed banditry after clashes over resources; kidnapping-for-ransom is one of several overlapping insecurity crises affecting central and northern Nigeria.
The violence goes beyond abductions. The extremist faction Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) claimed responsibility for the killing of a Nigerian general in Borno state this week and circulated footage and messages about a failed rescue attempt. Separately, gunmen earlier abducted 38 worshippers from a church in Kwara state during a livestreamed service; that attack left at least two dead and, according to reports, the captors demanded 100 million naira (about £52,662) per person, underscoring a financial motive.
The spate of attacks has sharpened international attention. Former US president Donald Trump and some US lawmakers have said Christians in Nigeria face persecution, and Trump warned of possible intervention; the Biden administration has designated Nigeria a “country of particular concern” over religious freedom. US officials describe a complex security landscape of terrorists, separatists, bandits and militias that often strike communities, including Christian ones. The Nigerian government rejects claims of an anti-Christian genocide and stresses that victims come from all faiths.
President Tinubu cancelled planned trips to the G20 and AU-EU summits in South Africa and Angola. Search-and-rescue operations continue as families, communities and officials press for swift action to recover the abducted children and teachers.