Nigeria School Abductions: Number of Kidnapped Students Rises to 303, Christian Group Says
NIGER STATE, Nigeria – The number of students and teachers feared kidnapped in a braid attack on a boarding school in central Nigeria has risen dramatically, according to a local Christian association, marking one of the largest such abductions in the country’s recent history.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) reported Thursday that 303 students and 12 teachers were abducted by armed gunmen during the raid on St. Mary’s Boarding School in Niger state. The updated figure comes after a verification exercise and is a significant increase from the initial count of 215 missing pupils.
The attack, which took place earlier this week, saw nearly half of the school’s 629 students seized. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the mass kidnapping.
This incident is the latest in a wave of school abductions plaguing northern and central Nigeria. It occurred just days after 25 schoolchildren were kidnapped in the neighboring Kebbi state, underscoring a worsening security crisis.
In response to the attack, authorities have deployed tactical teams and local hunters in a widespread search operation to locate and rescue the victims. As a precautionary measure, officials have ordered the closure of schools in several states, including Katsina, Plateau, and parts of Niger state.
The Catholic Diocese of Kontagora, which oversees Catholic institutions in the region, has stated that it did not receive any security alert prior to the assault. In a statement, the diocese dismissed circulating claims of a prior warning as “propaganda.”
The mass abduction has sent shockwaves through the nation, raising urgent questions about the government’s ability to protect its citizens, particularly children, from armed groups that operate with increasing impudence in the region.
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