By Segn Martins-
Close to hundred students and staff have been once again abducted in an early morning raid by armed men from a Catholic school in central Nigeria, the second mass school kidnapping this week. Only last week, over 25 girls were abducted from a school in Kebbi State, and have still not been returned.
The latest attack targeted St Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger state, where authorities had already ordered the temporary closure of all boarding schools due to rising security threats.
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A church was also attacked further south, in Kwara state, with two people killed and 38 abducted while the service was being broadcast online. The continuous situation involving random attacks on schools and churches is causing panic in Kwara State and neighbouring states where similar attacks are expected to take place in a matter of time.
Police said armed men – locally known as bandits – stormed St Mary’s School on Friday at about 02:00 local time (01:00 GMT) and abducted an unconfirmed number of students from their hostel.
The authorities in Niger state said the school, attended by both girls and boys, had disregarded an order to close all boarding facilities following intelligence warnings of a heightened risk of attacks.
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“Regrettably, St Mary’s School proceeded to reopen and resume academic activities without notifying or seeking clearance from the state government, thereby exposing pupils and the staff to avoidable risk,” they said in a statement.
The school has not commented. The police said that security agencies were “combing the forests with a view to rescue the abducted students”.
Abduction in Nigerian’s troubled north, are usually done for ransom; the release of each abducted victim dependent on the kidnapper’s demand, which is often based on the criminal’s perception of the family background of the victim.
Earlier this month, Trump said he would send troops into Nigeria “guns a-blazing” if its government “continues to allow the killing of Christians”.
And on Thursday, in a meeting with Nigeria’s national security advisor, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth called on Nigeria to take “urgent and enduring action to stop violence against Christians”, a statement from the Pentagon said.
Hegseth also conveyed the US’ will to “work by, with, and through Nigeria to deter and degrade terrorists that threaten the United States”.
The Nigerian government denies that Christians are being persecuted, saying that is “a gross misrepresentation of reality”.
An official said that “terrorists attack all who reject their murderous ideology – Muslims, Christians and those of no faith alike”.
Nigeria is currently grappling with multiple overlapping security crises.
The country’s 220 million people are roughly evenly split between followers of the two religions, with Muslims in the majority in the north.
The kidnapping of people for ransom by criminal gangs, known locally as bandits, has become a major problem in many parts of the country.
In the north-east, jihadist groups have been battling the state for more than a decade. Organisations monitoring violence say most of the victims of these groups are Muslim because most attacks happen in the north.
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