More than 300 children and staff are now thought to have been kidnapped by gunmen from a Catholic school in central Nigeria, making it one of the worst mass abductions the country has seen. Source: BBC.
The Christian Association of Nigeria said 303 students and 12 teachers were taken from on St Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger state – substantially more than previously estimated.
It said the figures have been revised upwards “after a verification exercise”.
The kidnapping comes amid a surge of attacks by armed groups. The revised number of people taken surpasses the 276 abducted during the infamous Chibok mass abduction of 2014.
Local police said armed men stormed the school around 2am local time on Friday morning, abducting students who were staying there.
Police said that security agencies were “combing the forests with a view to rescue the abducted students”.
All schools in Niger state were ordered to close on Saturday in response to the kidnapping.
It was initially reported that 215 pupils had been taken but that figure has since been revised. The new number is believed to be almost half of the school’s student population, the news agency AFP reports.
The kidnapping of people for ransom by criminal gangs, known locally as bandits, has become a major problem in many parts of Nigeria.
The payment of ransoms has been outlawed in an attempt to cut the supply of money to the criminal gangs, but it has had little effect.
Friday’s mass abduction was the third such attack in the country in a week.
Last Monday, more than 20 schoolgirls, who the BBC has been told are Muslim, were kidnapped from a boarding school in neighbouring Kebbi state.
A church was also attacked further south in Kwara state, with two people killed and 38 others abducted.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has postponed his foreign trips – including to this weekend’s G20 summit in South Africa – in order to address the security concerns.
FULL STORY
Nigeria sees one of worst mass abductions as 315 taken from school (By Alex Smith, Chris Ewokor and Elettra Neysmith, BBC)
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