The number of kidnapped students has risen to 303, along with 12 teachers, this Friday after an armed attack against St. Mary’s Catholic Secondary School, in the remote community of Papiri, Niger State, in northern Nigeria, reported this Saturday the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
“After the census and verification, the updated number of kidnapped students from the school is 303, while the number of kidnapped teachers remains at 12. Therefore, the total number of kidnapped people is 315,” declared Bishop Bulus Yohanna, president of CAN in Niger, to EFE.
According to CAN, the kidnapped students were both male and female and are between 10 and 18 years old, while the Nigerian Government ordered the temporary closure of 41 boarding schools in vulnerable states following this attack.
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“Due to the recent security issues in some parts of the country and the need to prevent any security breaches, the Honorable Minister of Education has approved the immediate closure of the Federal Unity Colleges,” announced the Director of Senior Secondary Education of the Federal Ministry of Education, Binta AbdulKadir.
Among the affected states are the schools of Niger and Kebbi in the northwest, and Plateau and Benue in the central territory, which are the main hotspots for kidnappings and killings in the country.
Authorities reported that “armed bandits” entered the boarding school around 2:00 a.m. (1:00 GMT), a few days after the kidnapping of 25 girls in another boarding school in the country, and the attack against parishioners of the Apostolic Church of Christ in Eruku, where at least two people died and 38 parishioners were kidnapped.
Niger Police spokesman Wasiu Abiodun indicated that “tactical police units, military personnel and other security agencies have been deployed in the area, combing the forest in order to rescue the students.”
A UNICEF report, published in April 2024, indicates that only 37% of schools in ten Nigerian states affected by conflict have early warning systems for threats.
Some states in Nigeria, especially in the center and northwest of the country, suffer constant attacks by bandits, a term used to refer to criminal gangs that commit assaults and mass kidnappings for ransom, which the authorities sometimes label as “terrorists”.
Adding to this insecurity is the activity of the jihadist group Boko Haram since 2009 in the northeast of the country and, from 2016, of its splinter group, the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP).
In 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from a school in the village of Chibok, in northeastern Nigeria, although many escaped their captors, according to the UN, at least 91 are still unable to return home.
