Two hundred and twenty-seven students and teachers were kidnapped from a Catholic school in central Nigeria on Friday, November 21, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said in the evening. “According to our information, 215 students and 12 teachers were kidnapped by terrorists” in this school located in Niger State, CAN stated in a press release, following the visit of the president of the Niger State association, Bulus Dauwa Yohanna to the school.
Earlier the same day, local authorities provided information about the kidnapping, but without specifying the number of people involved. This is the second kidnapping in the past week in the country, after the abduction of 25 high school girls in the North West region.
Kontagora Diocese, located in Niger State, has stated in its press release that armed men had carried out the invasion “school between 1am and 3am.”delete “pupils, students, teachers and security guards, who were killed”.
“Some students managed to escape”
“During the terrorist attack, several students managed to escape”added Mr. Yohanna in the CAN press release. The students kidnapped in the middle of the night were all girls, Daniel Atori, a CAN spokesman, told AFP by telephone. Authorities in Niger State have not communicated the results.
Due to increasing insecurity in the region, the state government has ordered, as a precautionary measure, the temporary closure of all boarding schools in the affected areas. St. Mary has “resuming academic activities without informing the state government or (own) obtain authorization, thereby exposing students and staff to avoidable risks”regretted Abubakar Usman, Secretary of State Government. Police announced on Friday that they had deployed tactical units and military elements at the location, which “sweeping the forest” to rescue kidnapped students.
This attack came days after the kidnapping, by gunmen, of 25 high school girls from the Maga girls’ boarding school, in Kebbi (North West) state, on the night of Sunday to Monday. According to authorities, one of the girls managed to escape. For now, the identity of the kidnappers – a jihadist group or a criminal gang – remains unknown. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu recently postponed his international trip and put his country’s security forces on high alert.
Jihadist insurgency for more than sixteen years
The two kidnappings, as well as an attack on a church on Tuesday in Eruku (West), came as US President Donald Trump threatened military intervention in Nigeria over allegations that the country’s Christians were being massacred. This rhetoric is being pushed in Washington by conservative elected officials as well as Christian defense associations. Abuja denies this, but says it is in talks with the US government on security cooperation, and states that the attacks impact Nigerians, regardless of religion.
Nigeria is divided between the northern region, where the majority of the population is Muslim, and the southern region, where the majority of the population is Christian. Criminal gang, so-called “bandits” by the population, has spread terror for years in the northwest and center of the country, attacking, kidnapping residents for ransom and burning down their homes after looting them.
Nigeria has also faced a jihadist insurgency for more than sixteen years, which has left 40,000 people dead and more than 2 million displaced in the north of the country, according to the UN.
