Nigerian Catholic school student kidnapped

An unknown number of students have been abducted by armed men from a Catholic school in central Nigeria, the second mass school abduction this week.

The latest attack targeted St. Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger State, where authorities have ordered the temporary closure of all boarding schools amid rising security threats.

Details are unclear, but residents fear nearly 100 students and staff may have been taken away in the early morning raid.

Nigeria has faced a new wave of attacks by armed groups in recent days, including the kidnapping on Monday of more than 20 Muslim schoolgirls from a boarding school in neighboring Kebbi state, who the BBC has learned are Muslim.

A church in the southwestern state of Kwara was also attacked during an online broadcast, leaving two people dead and 38 abducted.

Police said armed men, known locally as bandits, attacked St Mary’s School at around 02:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on Friday and abducted an unconfirmed number of students from their dormitories.

Fear and uncertainty gripped the area as families awaited news.

Authorities in Niger state said schools ignored orders to close all boarding facilities after receiving intelligence warnings of an increased risk of attacks.

“Regrettably, St. Mary’s School reopened and resumed academic activities without notifying or seeking permission from the state, thereby exposing students and staff to avoidable risks,” they said in a statement.

The school has not yet commented.

Police said security agencies were “scouring the forest to rescue the abducted students”.

The attack came after U.S. President Donald Trump claimed Christians were being persecuted in Nigeria, a charge the Nigerian government rejected.

Earlier this month, Trump said he would send troops into Nigeria “with guns blazing” if the Nigerian government “continues to allow the killing of Christians.”

The Nigerian government dismissed the claims, calling them a “gross distortion of reality.”

“Terrorists attack anyone who rejects their murderous ideology – Muslims, Christians and people of no faith,” one official said.

Nigeria is currently grappling with multiple overlapping security crises.

The country’s 220 million people are roughly equally divided between adherents of both religions, with Muslims in the majority in the north.

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 northeast, jihadist groups have been fighting the government for more than a decade. Organizations that monitor violence say most of the victims of these groups are Muslims, as most attacks occur in the north.

Deadly attacks between herdsmen (mainly Muslims) and farmers (mainly Christians) are also common in the country’s central region. However, analysts say these actions are often motivated by competition for resources such as water or land, rather than religion.

Local media reported that kidnappers have demanded ransom from those abducted from a church in Eruku, Kwara State.

The payment of ransoms has been banned in an attempt to reduce the availability of funds to criminal gangs, but with little success.

Two schoolgirls kidnapped on Monday in Magga, Kebbi State successful escapewhile 23 people are still missing. Two people were killed in that attack. They are all Muslims.

President Bola Tinubu this week postponed a trip abroad in response to a rising wave of attacks in Africa’s most populous country.