Gunmen abduct more than 300 children & teachers from school in Nigeria after Trump’s threat to unleash US military
HUNDREDS of children and teachers have been taken by gunmen from a Catholic school in a horror kidnapping in Nigeria.
It is one of the largest mass abductions to hit the country, surpassing the infamous Chibok attack by Boko Haram terrorists in 2014.
Friday’s abduction comes just weeks after President Donald Trump warned he might send in the US military “guns-a-blazing” if violence against Christians persisted in Nigeria.
The Christian Association of Nigeria said 303 students and 12 teachers were abducted from St Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger state, in the middle of the night.
Police said gunmen stormed the boarding campus at about 2am local time, dragging students from their dorms before disappearing into nearby forests.
Harrowing pictures show the once-lively blue-walled dorms, now completely silent with just piles of clothing scattered across the floor.
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Parent Dominic Adamu, whose daughters attend the school but were not taken, told the BBC: “Everybody is weak… it took everybody by surprise.”
Another woman said through tears that her nieces, aged six and 13, had been kidnapped, pleading: “I just want them to come home.”
Officials said that security agencies have been combing the forests to rescue the abducted students.
Fifty of the abducted schoolchildren have escaped captivity and are now with their families, the school authority said on Sunday.
The students, aged between 10 and 18, escaped individually between Friday and Saturday.
A total of 253 schoolchildren and 12 teachers are still held by the kidnappers, according to the Most Rev. Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Niger state and the proprietor of the school.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the abductions and authorities have said tactical squads have been deployed alongside local hunters to rescue the children.
It was not immediately clear where the children were being held or how they managed to return home.
US lawmakers condemned the assault, with Rep Chris Smith calling the scale of violence against Christian communities “real — and unfortunately, only getting worse.”
Nigeria, however, has pushed back strongly against claims of religious targeting, insisting Muslims and Christians are equally vulnerable in the wave of kidnappings.
Information minister Mohammed Idris said: “We flatly reject attempts to frame the situation based on religious identity.”
According to the BBC, authorities revealed the school had ignored an order to close boarding facilities after intelligence warnings, leaving pupils and staff exposed to “avoidable risk”.
The school has not commented on the allegations.
President Bola Tinubu has postponed foreign travel, including a planned appearance at a G20 summit in South Africa, to address the escalating crisis.
All schools in Niger state were also ordered to close.
Tinubu said he was “depressed that heartless terrorists have disrupted the education of innocent schoolgirls” and ordered security agencies to “act swiftly and bring the girls back.”
The government has moved students from vulnerable boarding schools to safer areas and placed security forces on “the highest alert ever,” officials said.
Nigeria has also reshuffled its military leadership after authorities uncovered an alleged coup plot, a move Tinubu said would “further strengthen Nigeria’s national security architecture.”
Diplomatic channels with Washington have been active in recent days, Idris said.
On Friday, Nigeria’s national security adviser met US secretary of war Pete Hegseth to discuss the surge in attacks and concerns raised in America.
The revised figure now exceeds the 276 girls taken from Chibok in 2014, an abduction that shocked the world and led to the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.
Many Chibok victims remain missing a decade later.
Friday’s attack was the third mass kidnapping in a week.
More than 20 Muslim schoolgirls were seized in Kebbi state on Monday, while a church attack in Kwara left two people dead and 38 abducted.
Kidnappings for ransom – driven by criminal gangs known locally as bandits – continue despite a nationwide ban on ransom payments.
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Abductions are heavily concentrated across Nigeria’s north, where criminal gangs and jihadist groups operate and where clashes between herders and farmers frequently escalate.
A recent government report estimated families paid more than $2billion in ransom in the year to April 2024, reflecting a surge in kidnappings amid worsening economic conditions.