Geneva/Abuja, November 25, 2025 – The United Nations on Tuesday strongly condemned the recent surge in mass kidnappings across north-central Nigeria, calling on the Federal Government to take urgent and decisive action to halt the attacks and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, UN Human Rights Office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan expressed deep alarm at the deteriorating security. “We are shocked at the recent surge in mass abductions in north-central Nigeria,” he stated. “We urge the Nigerian authorities at all levels to take all lawful measures to ensure such vile attacks are halted and to hold those responsible to account.”
The UN’s warning follows a series of devastating incidents that have seen hundreds of citizens, mostly schoolchildren, abducted in just over a week. According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 402 people — predominantly children — have been kidnapped in Niger, Kebbi, Kwara, and Borno states since 17 November. Only 88 have been freed or managed to escape.
The largest single attack occurred on 21 November at St. Mary’s Catholic Secondary School in Papiri, Niger State, where armed men stormed the dormitories and abducted 303 students aged 8 to 18 along with 12 teachers. Fifty students later escaped through dense forest, but more than 265 remain in captivity, with ransom demands reportedly running into tens of millions of naira.
Other incidents include:
- 25 Muslim schoolgirls taken from Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State (18 November)
- 38 Christian worshippers seized from a church in Kwara State (19 November), later released after negotiations
- 13 girls abducted from a village in Borno State (20 November)
- 10 women and children kidnapped from Isapa community in Kwara State (24 November)
The UN has demanded the immediate and safe return of all hostages, prompt and impartial investigations, and proactive measures to prevent further abductions. UNESCO separately condemned the targeting of schools, declaring that “schools must never be targets” and that the right to education is under severe threat in parts of Nigeria.
The wave of kidnappings has triggered widespread panic and forced drastic measures. On 22 November, Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Education ordered the closure of 47 federal unity colleges (boarding secondary schools) across the country. Several state governments went further: Niger State suspended all academic activities until January 2026, while Kebbi, Kwara, Katsina, and Yobe states imposed temporary shutdowns in high-risk areas. Parents in Abuja and other cities rushed to schools to evacuate their children, creating chaotic scenes outside school gates.
Nigeria has grappled with mass abductions for over a decade, ever since the 2014 Chibok kidnapping in which Boko Haram seized 276 schoolgirls from a government secondary school in Borno State. Around 90 of those girls remain missing to this day. While the northeast continues to suffer from Islamist insurgency led by Boko Haram and its splinter group ISWAP, the current surge in north-central and northwestern states is largely driven by criminal gangs locally known as “bandits.” These heavily armed groups, often former herders engaged in farmer-herder conflicts, operate from forest hideouts and rely on kidnapping-for-ransom as their primary revenue source.
The crisis has been worsened by chronic underfunding of security forces, widespread corruption, porous borders that allow easy arms smuggling, soaring youth unemployment (over 40 percent), 30-percent inflation, and climate-induced resource conflicts. Human rights organisations have repeatedly criticised successive Nigerian governments for failing to protect citizens or break the cycle of impunity.
President Bola Tinubu cancelled planned international trips, including to the G20 summit in South Africa, to focus on the emergency. He announced the recruitment of 30,000 additional police officers and the deployment of special tactical units to known bandit enclaves. However, many Nigerians remain sceptical, pointing to repeated promises that have yielded little improvement.
Religious leaders have also weighed in. The Vatican condemned the attacks and Pope Francis called for the immediate release of the children from St. Mary’s school. The Christian Association of Nigeria rejected attempts by some state officials to blame school management for ignoring closure warnings, calling the statements insensitive victim-blaming.
As families hold nightly prayer vigils and communities live in fear of the next raid, the latest surge has once again exposed the fragility of security in large parts of Africa’s most populous nation. For the hundreds of parents still waiting for their children’s safe return, promises of action ring increasingly hollow after more than ten years of the same nightmare.
