The horror of kidnapping seems endless in Nigeria. An unknown number of students and teachers have been kidnapped from a Catholic school in central Nigeria, officials said on Friday. Armed attackers stormed “school between 1am and 3am.”delete “student, student, teacher”. “A security guard was shot”said the Diocese of Kontagora, located in Niger State, in a press release.
This was the second kidnapping at a school in a week, and the third including one at a church. On the night of Sunday to Monday, gunmen kidnapped 25 high school girls from Maga girls’ boarding school, in Kebbi (northwestern) state. According to authorities, one of the girls managed to escape.
“The Niger State Government (Nigeria) receives with deep sadness the disturbing news of the abduction of students from St. Mary’s School, Agwara Local Government Area”announced Abubakar Usman, Secretary to the State Government. “The exact number of kidnapped students cannot be confirmed yet.”he added. For now, the identity of the kidnappers – a jihadist group or a criminal gang – remains unknown.
Facing rising insecurity in the region, the state government has ordered, as a precautionary measure, “temporary closure of all Islamic boarding schools in the area”, said Abubakar Usman. St. Mary’s School Mary has “continuing academic activities without notifying or obtaining permission from the state government, thereby exposing students and staff to avoidable risks”he regrets it. Police announced on Friday that they had deployed tactical units and military elements at the location, which “sweeping the forest” looking for the lost.
In Nigeria, West Africa’s most populous country plagued by insecurity, mass kidnappings are common, especially since the abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls in Chibok, in the North East, carried out in 2014 by the jihadist group Boko Haram. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu canceled his international trip on Friday and put his country’s security forces on high alert. He will be represented at the G20 summit in South Africa by his vice president, Kashim Shettima.
In Eruku (west), a church was also attacked on Tuesday during a live mass broadcast. Two people died, according to local authorities. According to the secretary of the place of worship, Michael Agbabiaka, the attackers also carried out kidnappings “35 people”a figure that has not been confirmed by police.
Following this attack, the local government decided to close schools in Ifelodun, Ekiti, Irepodun, Isin and Oke Ero constituencies, as a security measure, Ibraheem Abdullateef, Kwara State spokesperson, told AFP on Thursday. Authorities in Katsina State, in northern Nigeria, and Plateau State, in the center, on Friday announced the closure of all public primary and secondary schools in the states due to the security situation.
These kidnappings occurred when US President Donald Trump threatened to intervene militarily in Nigeria over allegations that Christians in the country were being persecuted. This country 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. 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 notes that the attacks impact Nigerians, regardless of religion.
In Nigeria, criminal gangs are 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 16 years, which has left 40,000 people dead and more than two million displaced in the north of the country, according to the UN.
