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Gunmen have abducted more than 300 schoolchildren and 12 teachers from St. Mary’s School, a Catholic institution in Niger state in north-central Nigeria. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) on Saturday confirmed the updated figures, a significant increase on the previous figure of 215 schoolchildren.
According to a statement from Most, the revised count was announced after “the verification exercise and final census has been conducted”. Rev. Bulus Dauwa Yohana, Chairman of Niger State Chapter of CAN. Rev Yohana had visited the school on Friday to assess the situation after the attack.
The school kidnapping in the remote Papiri community of Niger state came four days after 25 schoolchildren were captured in similar circumstances in neighboring Kebbi state. asked for The city, which is 170 kilometers (106 mi) away.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the abduction and officials have said local hunters as well as tactical squads have been deployed to rescue the children.
Local police said they have deployed a team to rescue the children.
School kidnappings have come to define insecurity in Africa’s most populous country, and analysts say this is often because armed gangs see schools as “strategic” targets to attract more attention.
UNICEF said last year that only 37% of schools in 10 conflict-affected states had early warning systems to detect threats. The kidnappings come amid US President Donald Trump’s claims of targeted killings against Christians in the West African country. Attacks in Nigeria affect both Christians and Muslims.
Earlier this week, a school in the Muslim-majority town of Maga in Kebbi state was attacked.
Kidnappers in the past have also included Boko Haram, a jihadist insurgency that carried out the mass abduction of 276 Chibok schoolgirls more than a decade ago, which brought the Islamic extremist group to global attention. But dozens of bandit groups have become active in the heavily defended northern region, often targeting remote villages with limited security and government presence.
At least 1,500 students have been captured in the years since the Chibok attack, many of whom have been released only after ransom was paid.
Boko Haram and Islamic State affiliate Boko Haram have long threatened large parts of NigeriaThe north, especially the north-east, as well as parts of neighboring Cameroon, Niger and Chad. The terrorist group has sought to impose an Islamic state on the region and its name – meaning “books are forbidden” – reflects its rejection of Western education. In 2014, Boko Haram burst onto the global stage with the Chibok kidnapping. Four years later, its fighters abducted 110 schoolgirls from a college in Yobe state, in the northeast.
The militants have made a strong resurgence this year after divisions in the past, with many fighters now aligned with a local affiliate of the Islamic State group. The exact number of fighters from each group is unknown, although they are estimated to number in the thousands. Groups continue to recruit, sometimes forcibly, youth who have been left vulnerable in an area where Nigerian authorities and humanitarian organizations struggle to safely serve.
The Trump administration’s deep cuts to foreign aid to Nigeria this year haven’t helped.
Other armed groups in northern Nigeria carry out kidnappings for ransom on a large scale. Authorities have said they mostly include former herders who took up arms against farming communities after clashes escalated tensions over limited resources.
Schools have been a popular target of bandits, who are motivated more by money than religious beliefs. Attacks often occur at night, with gunmen sometimes arriving on motorbikes or even wearing military uniforms and then disappearing into the vast, under-policed landscape. There is growing concern about links between bandits and terrorist groups, particularly in the north-west.
“Bandits operating in north-western Nigeria are often associated with extremist Islamic groups, who are a clear driver of instability in the region,” the US-backed Africa Center for Strategic Studies said earlier this year. He said these bandits are believed to be responsible for almost the same number of deaths there as Boko Haram and IS affiliates in the northeast.
In 2020, gunmen on motorcycles attacked a government secondary school in Katsina state and abducted more than 300 boys. The state government announced their release within a week. In 2021, gunmen abducted more than 300 schoolgirls in a night-time raid on a government secondary boarding school in Zamfara state. Within a few weeks, everyone was released after an apparent ransom was paid. And in 2024, gunmen on motorcycles abducted 287 students at a government secondary school in Kaduna state.
Nigeria has struggled for years to fight Boko Haram and other armed groups, sometimes attacking and killing civilians in airstrikes mistaken for militants. The army has also launched air strikes and special operations targeting hideouts of armed gangs. But in recent months Islamic militants have repeatedly seized military posts, mined roads with bombs and attacked civilian communities, despite the army claiming success against them. The increase in activity has strained security efforts across the north of Nigeria.
Last month, President Bola Tinubu replaced the country’s security chiefs. Earlier this year, the US government approved an arms sale worth $346 million to strengthen Nigeria’s fight against insurgents and criminal groups. However, more recently, Trump has threatened Nigeria with possible military action – and withheld all aid and assistance – while accusing Nigeria’s government of failing to rein in its persecution of Christians. Nigeria has rejected the claim.