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The Trump administration's deep cuts in foreign aid to Nigeria this year haven't helped the situation
Ap CorrespondentSaturday 22 November 2025 14:01 GMT
open image in galleryIn this photo released by Christian Association of Nigeria, a man walk past belongings at the St. Mary's Catholic Primary and Secondary School after gunmen abducted children and staff in Papiri community, Nigeria, Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. (Christian Association of Nigeria via AP)
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More than 300 schoolchildren and 12 teachers have been abducted by gunmen from St. Mary’s School, a Catholic institution in north-central Nigeria’s Niger state. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) confirmed the updated figures on Saturday, significantly increasing an earlier tally of 215 schoolchildren.
The revised count was announced after a "verification exercise and a final census was carried out," according to a statement from the Most. Rev. Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, chairman of the Niger state chapter of CAN. Rev. Yohanna had visited the school on Friday to assess the situation following the attack.
The school kidnapping in Niger state’s remote Papiri community happened four days after 25 schoolchildren were seized in similar circumstances in neighboring Kebbi state’s Maga town, which is 170 kilometers (106 miles) away.
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.
Local police said they have deployed a team to rescue the children.
School kidnappings have come to define insecurity in Africa's most populous nation, and analysts say it's often because armed gangs see schools as "strategic" targets to draw more attention.
UNICEF said last year that only 37% of schools across 10 of the conflict-hit states have early warning systems to detect threats.The kidnappings are happening amid U.S. President Donald Trump's claims of targeted killings against Christians in the West African country. Attacks in Nigeria affect both Christians and Muslims.
The school attack earlier this week in Kebbi state was in the Muslim-majority Maga town.
Kidnappers in the past have included Boko Haram, a jihadi insurgency that carried out the mass abduction of 276 Chibok schoolgirls more than a decade ago, bringing the Islamic extremist group to global attention.But dozens of bandit groups have become active in the hard-hit northern region, often targeting remote villages with a limited security and government presence.
At least 1,500 students have been seized in the years since the Chibok attack, many released only after ransoms were paid.
Boko Haram and an Islamic State affiliate Boko Haram has long menaced large parts of Nigeria's north, especially the northeast, as well as parts of neighboring Cameroon, Niger and Chad. The militant group has sought to impose an Islamic state in the region and its name — meaning "books are forbidden" — rejects Western education.In 2014, Boko Haram burst onto the global stage with the Chibok abduction. Four years later, its fighters abducted 110 schoolgirls from a college in Yobe state in the northeast.
The militants have mounted a strong resurgence this year after splitting in the past, with many fighters now aligned with a local affiliate of the Islamic State group. The exact number of fighters with each group is unknown, though they are estimated in the low thousands.The groups continue to recruit, sometimes forcibly, youth who have been left vulnerable in a region that Nigerian authorities and humanitarian organizations struggle to serve safely.
open image in galleryAn exterior view of the Christ Apostolic Church, the day after an attack by gunmen in which people were killed and the pastor and some worshippers kidnapped, in the town of Eruku, Kwara state, Nigeria, November 19, 2025. REUTERS/Abdullahi Dare Akogun (Reuters)The Trump administration's deep cuts in foreign aid to Nigeria this year haven't helped.
Other armed groups in northern Nigeria carry out abductions, largely for ransom. Authorities have said they include mostly former herders who took up arms against farming communities after clashes between them over increasingly strained resources.
Schools have been a popular target of the bandits, who are motivated more by money than religious beliefs. The attacks often occur at night, with gunmen at times zooming in on motorbikes or even dressed in military uniforms and then disappearing into the vast, under-policed landscape.There is growing concern about links between the bandits and the militant groups, notably in the northwest.
"While often conflated with the militant Islamist groups, the bandits operating in northwestern Nigeria are a distinct driver of instability in this region," the U.S.-backed Africa Center for Strategic Studies said earlier this year, noting that the bandits are thought to be responsible for about the same number of deaths there as Boko Haram and the IS affiliate are in the northeast.
In 2020, gunmen on motorcycles attacked a government secondary school in Katsina state and abducted more than 300 boys. The state government announced their release within a week. In 2021, gunmen abducted more than 300 schoolgirls in a nighttime raid on a government secondary boarding school in Zamfara state. Within weeks, all were released after the apparent payment of a ransom.And in 2024, gunmen on motorcycles abducted 287 students at a government secondary school in Kaduna state.
open image in galleryNigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, center, arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, Sept. 1, 2024. (Greg Baker/Pool Photo via AP, File) (AFP or Licensors)Nigeria has struggled for years to combat Boko Haram and other armed groups, at times striking and killing civilians in mistaken air assaults meant for militants. The military also has carried out airstrikes and special operations targeting the hideouts of armed gangs. But Islamic extremists in recent months have repeatedly overrun military outposts, mined roads with bombs and raided civilian communities despite the military's claims of success against them. That surge in activity has strained security efforts across Nigeria's north.
Last month, President Bola Tinubu replaced the country's security chiefs.Earlier this year, the U.S. government approved the sale of $346 million in arms to strengthen Nigeria's fight against insurgencies and criminal groups. More recently, however, Trump has threatened Nigeria with potential military action — and a halt to all aid and assistance — while alleging that Nigeria's government is failing to rein in the persecution of Christians. Nigeria has rejected the claim.
