50 children escape from massive school kidnapping in Nigeria

On Friday, 315 children from a Catholic school in Nigeria’s Niger state were kidnapped by gunmen, and 50 of them escaped.

The Christian Council of Nigeria said they had been reunited with their families.

A massive military-led search and rescue operation is underway to rescue the remaining 265 children and 12 teachers who were taken away.

Authorities in several Nigerian states ordered schools to close following Monday’s mass kidnapping in Niger and the abduction of 20 students from a boarding school in Kebbi state.

In another development, the Kwara State governor said 38 people kidnapped during a church service in Kwara State last week were released on Sunday.

An attack on the Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku left two people dead.

Many schools in Kebbi, Niger, Katsina, Yobe and Kwara states were ordered to close.

News of the children’s escape brings welcome relief to families and a country that has been grappling with the fate of hundreds of schoolchildren abducted in northwest Nigeria.

The students managed to escape between Friday and Saturday, according to a Christian group involved in the case, in what was described as a brave and risky attempt to escape their captors.

The students and teachers are from St. Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger State. Earlier reports said 303 students and 12 teachers were taken away.

Their number exceeds the 276 people kidnapped during 2017. The infamous Chibok mass kidnapping of 2014.

Local police said armed men attacked St. Mary’s College at around 02:00 am (01:00 GMT) and kidnapped students living at the school.

Niger state Governor Mohamed Umaru Bongo announced on Saturday that all schools in the region would be closed, warning that “now is not the time for finger-pointing”.

Pope Leo XIV called for the release of the abductees, expressing “great sadness” and urging authorities to act quickly.

Dominic Adamu, whose daughters attended the school but were not accepted, told the BBC: “Everyone is so weak… it’s a surprise to everyone.”

A grieving woman told the BBC in tears that her nieces, aged six and 13, had been kidnapped, adding: “I just want them home.”

The army, police and local vigilantes were searching for the children, scouring nearby forests and remote routes believed to have been used by the gunmen.

Authorities in Niger state said St. Mary’s School ignored an order to close all boarding facilities after receiving intelligence warnings of an increased risk of attacks. The school has not commented on the allegation.

Kidnapping people for ransom by criminal gangs, known locally as bandits, has become a major problem in many parts of Nigeria.

Paying ransoms has been outlawed in an effort to reduce the availability of funds to criminal gangs, but has had little effect.

More than 20 Muslim schoolgirls were abducted from a boarding school in Kebbi State on Monday and the BBC has learned they are Muslim.

Authorities there have now ordered all schools and universities to close.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has postponed overseas travel, including this weekend’s G20 summit in South Africa, to address security concerns.

This week’s attacks are as follows US right-wing figures including President Donald Trump claim Christians are persecuted in Nigeria.

For months, activists and politicians in Washington have claimed that Islamic militants systematically target Christians. The Nigerian government dismissed the claims.

Earlier this month, Trump said he would “shoot the gun” by sending troops to Nigeria if African governments “continue to allow the killing of Christians.”

The Nigerian government has called claims that Christians are being persecuted a “gross distortion of reality.”

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

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 country’s Muslim-majority northern region.

Deadly attacks also occur frequently in central Nigeria between herdsmen (mainly Muslims) and farmers (mainly Christians).

However, analysts say these actions are often motivated by competition for resources such as water or land, rather than religion.

In 2014, the radical Islamist group Boko Haram took 276 girls from schools in the town of Chibok.

The incident attracted international attention and sparked a global campaign seeking their return, including the intervention of then-US First Lady Michelle Obama.

Since then, many have either escaped or been released, but as many as 100 people remain missing.