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ABUJA, Nigeria — In a glimmer of hope amid one of Nigeria's most harrowing school abductions, 50 of the 303 schoolchildren seized by gunmen from a remote Catholic boarding school have escaped their captors and reunited with their families, church officials announced Sunday. The escapes, which occurred individually between Friday night and Saturday morning, have brought tearful reunions for some parents in Niger State’s Papiri community, but the fate of the remaining 253 students and 12 teachers hangs in agonizing uncertainty, with no word from the kidnappers on ransom demands or their location.
The Most Rev. Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Niger State and proprietor of St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary School, confirmed the escapes in a statement released Sunday afternoon. “We were able to ascertain this when we decided to contact and visit some parents,” Yohanna said, noting that the children, aged 10 to 18, slipped away during moments of chaos in the dense forests where the abductors are believed to be holding their captives. One 14-year-old boy, speaking anonymously to local reporters after returning home, described hiding in underbrush for hours before fleeing under cover of darkness. “They were shouting orders, but I ran when the guards looked away,” he recounted, his voice trembling. Families in Papiri, a rural outpost near the Yelwa-Mokwa highway, have lit candles and held vigils, their relief tempered by the knowledge that siblings and classmates remain missing.
The abduction unfolded in the pre-dawn hours of Friday, November 21, when heavily armed assailants on motorcycles stormed the school’s hostels, firing warning shots and herding students and staff into waiting vehicles. Initial reports pegged the number at around 215 students, but a Saturday recount by CAN officials, including Yohanna’s on-site visit, raised it to 303 pupils plus 12 educators—a figure that surpasses the infamous 2014 Chibok kidnapping of 276 girls by Boko Haram militants. The attackers, suspected to be from one of the bandit gangs that infest the region’s vast woodlands, vanished into the bush before security forces arrived. Niger State police spokesperson Wasiu Abiodun confirmed tactical units and military detachments were deployed immediately, but as of Sunday evening, no breakthroughs had been announced. “We are combing the forests relentlessly,” Abiodun said in a briefing, urging parents not to pay ransoms, which are illegal under Nigerian law but routinely demanded in such cases.
The incident has drawn global condemnation, with Pope Leo XIV issuing a poignant plea from St. Peter’s Square at the close of Sunday Mass on the Solemnity of Christ the King. “I learned with immense sadness the news of the kidnappings of priests, faithful, and students in Nigeria and Cameroon,” the pontiff said, his voice carrying over the Vatican crowd. “I feel great sorrow, especially for the many girls and boys who have been abducted and for their anguished families. I make a heartfelt appeal for the immediate release of the hostages and urge the competent authorities to take appropriate and timely decisions to ensure their release.” The Pope’s words echoed similar abductions in neighboring Cameroon, where six priests were seized last week, underscoring a regional surge in faith-based targeting. In Nigeria, Yohanna echoed the call: “As much as we receive the return of these 50 children that escaped with some sigh of relief, I urge you all to continue in your prayers for the rescue and safe return of the remaining victims.”
This latest horror is not isolated. Just four days earlier, on November 17, gunmen raided the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga town, Kebbi State—170 kilometers (106 miles) northwest of Papiri—abducting 25 schoolgirls aged 12 to 17 after killing the vice principal in a hail of gunfire. One girl escaped hours later, slipping away during a forest trek, but the others remain captive, with local hunters aiding security sweeps through bandit hideouts in Zamfara and Sokoto states. Kebbi Governor Nasir Idris decried the attack as “economic terrorism,” vowing no ransom would be paid, though families whispered of underground negotiations. The dual strikes have paralyzed northern Nigeria, where armed gangs exploit ungoverned forests spanning multiple states to launch hit-and-run raids.
In response, authorities have shuttered schools en masse. Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago declared an indefinite closure of all institutions statewide, framing it as an “emergency Christmas holiday” to shield students. The federal government followed suit, ordering 47 public boarding schools nationwide—including 41 Unity Colleges in hotspots—to suspend operations indefinitely. Neighboring states piled on: Kwara halted classes in four local governments, Plateau and Katsina shut public primaries and secondaries, and Benue’s teachers’ union reported dozens already closed due to prior displacements. President Bola Tinubu, who scrapped a G20 trip to South Africa, dispatched Junior Defense Minister Bello Matawalle to Kebbi for on-ground coordination. UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, a Nigerian native, lamented: “Schools should be sanctuaries for education, not targets. We must protect schools and hold perpetrators accountable.”
School abductions have scarred Nigeria since the Chibok tragedy ignited global outrage over a decade ago, with at least 1,500 students seized nationwide—many freed only after clandestine ransom payments. Analysts trace the tactic to bandit groups seeking “strategic” leverage: high visibility for extortion, low risk in remote areas with scant policing. Confidence McHarry, a security expert at Lagos-based SBM Intelligence, attributes the persistence to “the absence of consequences,” noting arrests are rare despite billions in ransoms fueling gang arsenals. In northern Nigeria’s Muslim-majority northwest, like Kebbi’s Maga, victims span faiths, but the Niger attack on a Christian school has amplified sectarian narratives.
The timing coincides with U.S. President Donald Trump’s escalating rhetoric on “Christian persecution” in Nigeria, which he claims constitutes an “existential threat” from “radical Islamists.” In early November, Trump designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” for religious freedom violations, threatening to halt all U.S. aid—worth $32.5 million in humanitarian support this year—and even military intervention “guns-a-blazing” if attacks continue. Citing over 3,100 Christian deaths, he bypassed standard protocols, drawing applause from allies like Sen. Ted Cruz but sharp rebuke from Abuja. Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar countered: “Nigeria opposes religious persecution... It’s impossible for there to be religious persecution supported by the government at any level.”
Experts caution Trump’s framing oversimplifies a multifaceted crisis. While Boko Haram and bandits have slain thousands—over 8,000 civilians this year alone, per monitoring groups—victims include Muslims disproportionately in the jihadist-ravaged northeast and bandit-plagued northwest. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) logs 389 anti-Christian incidents from 2020-2025 (318 deaths) versus 197 anti-Muslim ones (418 deaths), but attributes most violence to land disputes, resource grabs, and criminality, not orchestrated genocide. “These groups have massacred tens of thousands of Muslims,” said analyst Bulama Bukarti, warning that inflammatory claims risk stoking divisions in a nation split evenly between Christians and Muslims. Amnesty International echoes this, decrying “egregious crimes” but finding no state-backed religious targeting.
As night falls over Papiri, search teams press on, their flashlights piercing the forest gloom. For the escaped children, therapy and counseling await; for the held, only prayers and the faint hope of dawn. Nigeria’s education minister has pledged infrastructure audits and more guards for reopened schools, but with gangs adapting faster than responses, the cycle feels unbroken. In a country where over 40,000 have died in northeast insurgencies since 2009 and millions displaced, these abductions underscore a deeper malaise: governance voids exploited by opportunists. International pressure, from the Vatican to Washington, may hasten rescues, but experts like Nnamdi Obasi of the International Crisis Group stress local solutions—bolstering rural policing, community intelligence, and economic alternatives to banditry. Until then, Nigeria’s classrooms remain fortresses under siege, their young dreams held hostage to shadows in the bush.
