The mass abduction at St. Mary’s School in Agwara follows a similar attack on Monday, highlighting the escalating insecurity crisis in the West African nation.
MINNA — Armed men stormed a Catholic school in the Nigerian state of Niger on Friday morning, kidnapping 52 students just days after a similar mass abduction in a neighboring region, according to local media reports.
The attack targeted St. Mary’s School in the community of Papiri, Agwara municipality. While the Niger state government confirmed the incident in a statement, it initially refrained from specifying the exact number of victims. However, local broadcaster Arise TV reported that 52 students were taken.
“The Niger State Government has received with deep sadness the disturbing news of the abduction of students of St. Mary’s School,” the official statement read, adding that security agencies have been mobilized to search for the victims.
The state government’s secretary, Abubakar Usman, revealed that the school had reopened without official authorization, despite intelligence warnings about heightened threats in the area. “Regrettably, St. Mary’s School proceeded to reopen and resume academic activities without notifying or seeking approval from the state government, thereby exposing pupils and staff to avoidable risk,” the statement noted.
The kidnapping comes less than a week after gunmen attacked a secondary school in Kebbi state on Monday, abducting 25 girls and killing at least one worker. The proximity and timing of the two attacks have intensified fears that criminal gangs, often referred to as “bandits,” are ramping up their operations in the northwest.
Insecurity has become a defining crisis for Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. Mass abductions for ransom, a tactic once associated primarily with the jihadist group Boko Haram in the northeast, have now spread across the country, carried out by various armed groups.
President Bola Tinubu, who has been under pressure to address the spiraling violence, has reportedly postponed international travel to deal with the domestic security situation.
While no group has yet claimed responsibility for the St. Mary’s attack, the modus operandi matches that of the bandit gangs operating in the region’s vast forests. These groups have made the kidnapping of schoolchildren a lucrative industry, leaving families and communities in a state of constant terror.
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