Nigeria school abduction: ABUJA, Nigeria — Armed men abducted 315 students and staff from St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary School in Niger State during a raid on Friday, the Christian Association of Nigeria said. A new body count, including 303 students and 12 staff, came after families called in more missing children, and it emerged that escapees had also been caught. Feb. 22,2025
Most Rev. The new figure came after a door-to-door head count, which revealed that 88 children initially believed to have escaped were instead identified as among those who had been kidnapped while attempting to flee through bush paths, said Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, chairman of the Niger State chapter of CAN and Catholic bishop of Kontagora Diocese.
The kidnapping at the Nigerian school happened between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. Friday, when armed men invaded the boarding school in Papiri, Agwara local government area, shooting into the air as they rounded up children from their dormitories. Pupils aged roughly 10 to 18 were escorted into the surrounding forests, the church and local officials said.
CAN’s updated troop-census figure, amplified by reports on a local television station and a lengthy bulletin from TVC News, pushed up an earlier estimate of 227, then 215. The school has an enrollment of around 629, and hundreds of parents are struggling to determine whether their children are among those missing.
A security guard was shot and gravely wounded in the attack, diocesan officials said, as the gunmen easily overwhelmed local watchmen and spread swiftly through the compound. Photographs published by CAN, a news outlet, and other organizations show battered dormitories, naked bunk beds, and remnants of uniforms strewn about the once-thronged halls.
Military units, special police tactical teams, and local hunters are now scouring forests and known bandit routes around Papiri in an urgent search-and-rescue operation, the Niger State police said. Recent Associated Press reporting has found that mixed security squads — working alongside volunteers from the community — are tracking kidnappers in rugged terrain with helicopters available for reconnaissance, a detailed Associated Press piece reported.
No group has been publicly linked to the Nigerian school abduction, but the country is struggling with armed criminals known locally as bandits who kidnap for ransom. A broader look at this week’s events by Reuters notes that those gangs now frequently hit schools, villages, and churches across northern and central Nigeria before retreating into forest hideouts just as security forces start to arrive.
The Papiri raid occurred only four days after gunmen assaulted a government girls’ school in Maga, in Kebbi State, and abducted 25 students while also killing a staff member, regional and international news coverage reported. In that earlier episode, at least one of the abducted girls later escaped and found safety, local officials told reporters.
This latest school abduction in Nigeria is one of the worst such mass classroom kidnappings since 276 students were abducted from a girls’ boarding school by Boko Haram militants in Chibok, also in Borno State, in 2014. A decade later, a review by Amnesty International found that 82 of the Chibok girls were still held captive and said more than 1,700 children had been abducted by gunmen in school attacks since 2014.
Nigeria also experienced a surge of mass abductions from boarding schools in the northwest and north-central regions in 2021. In Zamfara State, 279 girls who were kidnapped from the Government Girls Science Secondary School in Jangebe have since been released as a result of negotiations, an example that was vividly documented by The Guardian. Other abductions in Kankara and Kagara in 2020 only cemented parents’ fears that classrooms were now prime targets.
UN agencies have repeatedly warned that targeting schools could lead to a lost generation. By mid-2021, a Nigeria-focused briefing from UNICEF noted that at least 1,436 children had been kidnapped in 20 school attacks that year alone, with more than 200 still missing, and estimated that insecurity and its disruptions had indefinitely pushed back the first day of school for at least one million students.
In Papiri, CAN has vehemently rejected claims by the Niger State government that the Catholic school acted against a directive to remain shut due to security challenges. Yohanna dismissed the allegation as “a way to shift blame,” arguing that neither the diocesan education office nor the National Association of Private Schools ever received an official circular instructing them to close down before pupils resumed classes.
Nigerian authorities, meanwhile, have acted to contain the fallout, which is spreading beyond Papiri. Federal officials recently ordered dozens of elite “unity colleges” in the high-risk northern states to temporarily close, adding to earlier reports of school closures within Niger State itself. Critics such as some UN officials and local advocates maintain that blanket shutdowns penalize children and could help to drive extremist narratives against formal schooling.
Parents of the kidnapped children had been gathering at St. Mary’s and neighboring churches, checking in with clergy to get updates from local officials, while police have asked family members to provide pictures and details of school enrollment. One CAN statement reported that the bishop said church leaders were cooperating closely with security agencies and community representatives “to guarantee our children return home safely,” even as relatives prepare for what could remain a protracted negotiation.
Security experts say the Nigerian school abduction at St. Mary’s underscores how ransom economics, lax rural security, and political pressure come together. Armed groups also know that attacking classrooms or churches prompts a national outcry and international attention, raising the chances that communities will pool resources to pay for hostages’ release.
For now, neither CAN nor the government has released any figures on ransom demands, and officials say an organized rescue should be the priority rather than paying the ransom. While Yohanna implored residents to stay calm and pray, he also demanded more diligence by authorities in protecting every remaining campus in Niger State — reminding them that until children can learn without fear, the consequences of this and previous kidnappings will continue to shape Nigeria’s future.
