More than 200 children have been abducted after gunmen stormed a Catholic school in western Nigeria, in one of the country’s largest mass kidnappings in recent years.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said attackers struck St Mary’s School in the Papiri community of Niger State’s Agwara district early on Friday morning, seizing 215 pupils along with 12 teachers.
Daniel Atori, spokesperson for CAN in Niger State, said he had travelled to the community to meet distressed families.
“I just got back to the village tonight after I visited the school where I also met with parents,” he said, adding that the association is working “to ensure our children’s safe return.”
Police confirmed the attack took place before dawn and said soldiers and other security personnel had been deployed.
St Mary’s is classified as a secondary school, but satellite images show the compound linked to an adjacent primary school with more than 50 buildings, including classrooms and dormitories. The complex lies close to a major road connecting the towns of Yelwa and Mokwa.
Residents described scenes of panic as families searched for missing children.
Dauda Chekula, 62, said four of his grandchildren, aged seven to 10, were taken.
“We don’t know what is happening now, because we have not heard anything since this morning,” he told The Associated Press news agency. “The children who were able to escape have scattered … and the only information we are getting is that the attackers are still moving with the remaining children into the bush.”
A statement from the secretary to the Niger State government said that authorities had earlier received intelligence warning of increased threats in the area. It said the school reopened “without notifying or seeking clearance from the State Government, thereby exposing pupils and the staff to avoidable risk”.
Residents said the school lacked a formal security presence. The Catholic Diocese of Kontagora said a guard was “badly shot” during the attack.
President Bola Tinubu cancelled his planned trip to the G20 summit in South Africa following the abductions. Vice President Kashim Shettima will attend in his place, the presidency said on X.
The school kidnappings and an attack on a church earlier this week come weeks after United States President Donald Trump threatened military action over what he described as targeted killings of Nigeria’s Christians, a narrative rejected by the Nigerian government, which says Muslims are the majority victims of attacks by armed groups.
Trump’s assertions echo claims that have gained traction among right-wing and Christian evangelical circles in recent months.
Second attack in days
The attack comes just days after armed men stormed a secondary school in Kebbi State in northwestern Nigeria, abducting 25 schoolgirls early on Monday morning. One later escaped, and 24 are still missing.
Niger State police said their tactical units and the military have been deployed to search for the pupils.
Police received a report at about 2am (01:00 GMT) that “some armed bandits invaded St Mary’s Private [Catholic] Secondary School, and abducted a yet to be ascertained number of students from the school’s hostel”, the force said in a statement.
It said security agencies were “combing the forests with a view to rescue the abducted students”.
Nigerian security forces have been placed on high alert this week as the country faces an uncomfortable spotlight on its security situation.
In a separate attack on a church in western Nigeria on Tuesday, armed men killed two people during a service that was recorded and broadcast online. Dozens of worshippers are believed to have been abducted.
Meanwhile, gunmen, who kidnapped 38 worshippers from a church in Nigeria’s Kwara State on Tuesday, are demanding a ransom of 100 million naira (roughly $69,000) per worshipper, a church official told the Reuters news agency on Friday.
