Christian Group Says 315 Seized in Latest Nigerian Mass School Kidnapping

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Security fears in Africa’s most populous nation have reached a fever pitch following a catastrophic security breach in central Nigeria, where a Christian group confirmed on Saturday that 315 students and teachers were seized in the country's second mass school abduction in a single week.

The confirmation of the staggering figure by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) details a harrowing raid on St Mary's co-education school in Niger state, an event that has deepened the sense of crisis gripping the region and drawn sharp, controversial commentary from the international community regarding the religious dimensions of the violence.

The incident, which took place early Friday, represents a dramatic escalation in the wave of criminality and insurgency destabilizing Nigeria.

According to the Christian Association of Nigeria, the scale of the abduction was initially underestimated. Following a rigorous verification process conducted in the aftermath of the raid, the association revealed that the number of captives was significantly higher than early reports suggested. The total number of victims abducted is now confirmed to be 303 students and 12 teachers, a figure that accounts for almost half of the school's entire student population of 629.

The verification effort was led by Reverend Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, who serves as the Catholic Bishop of the Kontagora diocese, under whose jurisdiction the school falls. Reverend Yohanna provided a chilling account of how the final headcount was established. After visiting the school at Papiri, church officials initiated a series of calls and inquiries to track down those who were unaccounted for.

In a tragic twist, the verification exercise revealed that many students who were initially thought to have fled to safety had actually fallen back into the hands of the attackers. Reverend Yohanna explained that they discovered 88 more students were captured after they tried to escape the initial assault. This grim realization brought the total to 303 male and female students, alongside four female and eight male teachers.

This mass abduction at St Mary’s came just days after gunmen stormed a secondary school in neighboring Kebbi state on Monday, abducting 25 girls. A United Nations source, speaking on condition of anonymity to the AFP, suggested that the children taken in the Kebbi raid had likely been transported to the Birnin Gwari forest in nearby Kaduna state.

The proximity and frequency of these attacks have forced authorities in the nearby states of Katsina and Plateau to order the closure of all schools as a precautionary measure, while the Niger state government has also shuttered many educational institutions to prevent further atrocities.

The crisis has reached the highest levels of the Nigerian government, disrupting state affairs and international diplomacy. President Bola Tinubu was compelled to cancel his scheduled international engagements, including his attendance at the pivotal G20 summit in Johannesburg, to remain in the country and handle the unfolding security emergency.

While the Nigerian government has not yet officially commented on the specific number of students and teachers abducted in this latest incident, the administration is under immense pressure to stem the tide of violence that has spiralled nationwide.

The timing of these attacks has added a volatile layer to Nigeria's diplomatic relations, particularly with the United States. The two abduction operations and a separate deadly attack on a church in the west of the country occurred in the immediate wake of threats issued by U.S. President Donald Trump.

As reported by The New York Times, President Trump escalated his rhetoric regarding the situation in Nigeria on Friday, accusing the West African nation of failing to protect its Christian population. For the first time, the U.S. President used the term "genocide" to describe the violence, threatening military action over what he characterized as the killing of Christians by radical Islamists.

"I think Nigeria is a disgrace. The whole thing is a disgrace," President Trump said in an interview on Fox News Radio. "They’re killing people by the thousands. It’s a genocide. And I’m really angry about it."

This stark characterization was followed by high-level meetings in Washington, where Nigeria’s national security adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, met with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon on Friday to discuss the allegations and the security trajectory of the region.

However, the reality on the ground, as detailed by observers and security analysts, is far more complex than a singular narrative of religious persecution. While the attack on St Mary’s targeted a Catholic institution, the violence in Nigeria affects a broad spectrum of religious and ethnic groups.

The New York Times noted that while kidnappings and terror attacks are widespread—with more than 8,000 people killed this year alone—there is no clear evidence to suggest Christians are attacked more frequently than Muslims. The abduction of 25 Muslim students from a school in the northwest on Monday serves as a grim testament to the indiscriminate nature of the threat.

The security landscape in Nigeria is defined by myriad challenges that defy simple explanation. For years, heavily armed criminal gangs, often referred to as "bandits," have intensified attacks in the rural areas of northwest and central Nigeria.

These gangs operate with impunity in areas where there is little state presence, killing thousands and conducting industrial-scale kidnappings for ransom. These groups maintain camps in a vast forest network straddling several states, including Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi, and Niger.

While these bandits typically have no ideological leanings and are primarily motivated by financial gain, authorities and security analysts are increasingly concerned by their growing alliance with jihadist groups from the northeast.

Jihadists, such as Boko Haram and its offshoots, have been waging an insurrection for 16 years with the aim of establishing a Caliphate. This convergence of criminal profit-seeking and ideological extremism has created a deadly synergy that threatens the stability of the entire nation.

In the central part of Nigeria, where the St Mary’s abduction took place, the violence is further complicated by long-standing clashes between herders and farmers battling for scarce resources. These conflicts often involve ethnic and religious tensions, but recent trends suggest that the attacks have morphed into land-grabbing operations by influential figures, rather than purely sectarian strife.

Furthermore, the religious dimension of the violence was highlighted by a separate attack on a church in western Nigeria on Tuesday. In that incident, gunmen killed two people during a service that was being broadcast online, and dozens of worshippers are believed to have been abducted. This brazen assault on a place of worship underscores the vulnerability of soft targets across the country.

Nigeria remains deeply scarred by the legacy of mass abductions, most notably the kidnapping of nearly 300 girls by Boko Haram jihadists at Chibok in northeastern Borno state more than a decade ago. Some of those girls are still missing, a lingering reminder of the state's inability to fully secure its citizens.

As hostage-taking spirals into a favored tactic for both bandit gangs and jihadists, the perpetrators continue to commit acts of violence with near-total impunity. Few are ever captured or tried, and government and security officials are rarely held accountable for the security lapses that allow these mass abductions to occur.

The conflicting narratives—between the U.S. President's assertion of a targeted Christian genocide and the complex, multi-faceted reality of lawlessness affecting Muslims and Christians alike—complicate the international response.

Yet, for the families of the 315 newly abducted students and teachers from St Mary’s, the geopolitical definitions matter far less than the immediate terror of their loved ones' captivity. With schools closing across multiple states and the President grounding himself to address the crisis, Nigeria faces a critical juncture in its battle against an enemy that operates from the vast, ungoverned forests, striking the country's most vulnerable citizens: its children.