US EditionFifty Children Escape After Mass School Abduction in Nigeria
About 50 children escaped captivity and reunited with families, while 253 students and staff remain held as rescue efforts continue amid ongoing security challenges.
- On Friday, gunmen stormed St. Mary's Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State, seizing 303 students and 12 teachers in one of Nigeria's largest kidnappings.
- Security analysts say schools are strategic targets for bandits because armed gangs and Islamist extremist factions carry out kidnappings for ransom amid weak security and contested government responses.
- Fifty pupils escaped between Friday and Saturday and have been reunited with their families, the Christian Association of Nigeria said Sunday, though no details were released about the escape or remaining hostages.
- Authorities have closed schools and launched search-and-rescue operations, with police, military, tactical squads and local hunters deployed to find around 253 pupils and 12 teachers still held.
- International figures have weighed in, with comparisons to the Chibok abduction, as Pope Leo XIV urged, `I make a heartfelt appeal for the immediate release of the hostages` amid growing global scrutiny.
139 Articles
139 Articles
Nigeria children home after fleeing kidnappers
ABUJA, Nigeria — Fifty of the 303 schoolchildren abducted from a Catholic school in north-central Nigeria's Niger state have escaped captivity and are now with their families, the school authority said Sunday, as the pope called for the immediate release…
Nigeria: 52 students kidnapped in Niger State school attack
While no group has yet claimed responsibility, Nigeria has long battled kidnapping networks ranging from Boko Haram — responsible for the infamous Chibok schoolgirl abduction in 2014 — to heavily armed criminal gangs known locally as bandits.
At least five kidnappings took place in Nigeria last week. In the largest, more than three hundred students were taken from a school by gunmen.
38 Worshippers Abducted in Kwara Regain Freedom as Tinubu Vows Not to Relent
38 worshippers, who were abducted from a branch of Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) at Oke Isegun in the Eruku community of Kwara State, have regained freedom.Kwara Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq announced the development in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Rafiu Ajakaye, on Sunday. The Governor disclosed that the worshippers were released on Sunday. Even though he didn't provide any information on how the abductees regained their …
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