AGWARA, Nigeria — More than 200 students and a dozen teachers were kidnapped from a Catholic boarding school in Northern Nigeria early Friday, marking the country’s second mass abduction targeting Christians in a week and underscoring a worsening security crisis.
Terrorist stormed St. Mary’s School in the Agwara area of Niger state around dawn, seizing 215 students and 12 teachers, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
Daniel Atori, spokesperson for CAN in Niger state, said he met with distraught families to reassure them that authorities were mobilizing to rescue the victims. “I met the parents to assure them that we are working with the government and security agencies to see that our children are rescued and brought back safely,” he said.
St. Mary’s is a secondary school for students aged 12 to 17, but it is attached to a large primary school complex with more than 50 classrooms and dormitories. Local residents said the attackers swept through the grounds before herding students into the surrounding forest.
Dauda Chekula, 62, said four of his grandchildren — aged seven to 10 — were among those taken.
“We don’t know what is happening now, because we have not heard anything since this morning,” Chekula said. “The children who were able to escape have scattered, some of them ran back to their houses and the only information we are getting is that the attackers are still moving with the remaining children into the bush.”
The kidnapping comes just days after armed men abducted 25 schoolgirls from a boarding school in neighbouring Kebbi state. Police said gunmen on motorcycles stormed the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in the town of Maga at about 4 a.m. Monday in a coordinated assault.
A 15-year-old student from that attack managed to escape and sought refuge in a teacher’s home.
Authorities in Niger state said Friday’s kidnapping occurred despite intelligence warnings of heightened threats in the area. Abubakar Usman, secretary to the state government, said in a statement that St. Mary’s reopened “without notifying or seeking clearance from the State Government, thereby exposing pupils and staff to avoidable risk.”
The Catholic Diocese of Kontagora said a security guard at the school was “badly shot” during the attack.
The wave of violence extended beyond schools. On Monday, terrorists raided a church in Kwara state, killing at least two people and abducting 38 worshippers. Church officials said the attackers later demanded a ransom of 100 million naira (about £52,660) for each captive.
Kebbi, Kwara and Niger states share borders, and the region has increasingly come under attack by armed gangs that often target schools for ransom.
The latest kidnappings have renewed scrutiny of Nigeria’s security failures and forced President Bola Tinubu to postpone foreign trips as the government responds to the crisis.
More than 1,500 students have been abducted in northern Nigeria since Boko Haram militants seized 276 girls from Chibok in 2014, an attack that drew global outrage.
No group has claimed responsibility for the recent abductions in Niger and Kebbi, but analysts say Boko Harams, or other extremist groups, are likely behind the operations.
The incidents also follow international attention after U.S. President Donald Trump warned of Christian genocide in Nigeria — a claim Nigerian authorities have rejected despite overwhelming evidence.
