ABUJA — More than 300 children and staff members are now believed to have been kidnapped from a Catholic school in central Nigeria, in what has become one of the country’s worst mass abductions in years.
The Christian Association of Nigeria said 303 students and 12 teachers were taken from St. Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger State—significantly higher than initial estimates.
The association said the revised figure followed a detailed verification exercise. The scale of the abduction surpasses the 276 girls taken during the 2014 Chibok kidnapping, which shocked the world.
Local police said armed men stormed the boarding school around 2 a.m. on Friday, abducting students as they slept. “Everybody is weak… it took everybody by surprise,” said Dominic Adamu, whose daughters attend the school but were not taken. Another distraught woman told the BBC her nieces, aged six and 13, were among the kidnapped: “I just want them to come home.”
Security forces are searching surrounding forests to locate the hostages, authorities said. The new confirmed number represents nearly half the school’s total enrollment, according to AFP.
Niger State officials said the school had ignored an earlier order to close all boarding facilities after intelligence warnings of heightened risk. They accused the school of exposing students and staff to “avoidable risk,” though the school has not commented.
Friday’s mass abduction is the third major kidnapping in Nigeria in just one week. On Monday, more than 20 Muslim schoolgirls were abducted from a boarding school in Kebbi State. A church attack in Kwara State days earlier left two people dead and 38 abducted.
Kidnapping for ransom by criminal gangs—known locally as bandits—has grown into a national crisis. Although ransom payments have been outlawed in an effort to stop the flow of funds to armed groups, the measure has had limited impact.
President Bola Tinubu has postponed foreign travel, including attendance at this weekend’s G20 summit in South Africa, to address the deteriorating security situation. The federal government has also ordered the closure of more than 40 colleges, while several states have shut public schools.
The surge in violence comes amid a growing debate over claims by some U.S. political figures, including President Donald Trump, that Christians are being specifically targeted in Nigeria—claims the Nigerian government has called “a gross misrepresentation of reality.”
Officials argue that armed groups attack Muslims, Christians, and others alike, driven largely by ideology, criminal extortion, or competition over land and water—particularly in central regions where clashes between herders and farmers are common.
Nigeria has faced overlapping security threats for years, including jihadist insurgencies in the northeast. Analysts note that most victims of extremist groups have been Muslim, given that attacks are concentrated in the predominantly Muslim north.
The latest abduction revives memories of the Chibok kidnapping, which triggered a global campaign led by figures. While many of those girls have been freed over the years, around 100 are still missing. — BBC
