50 children kidnapped from Nigerian Catholic school escape captivity

LAGOS: At least 50 of the more than 300 children snatched by gunmen from a Catholic school in Nigeria have escaped their captors, a Christian group said on Sunday (Nov 23), as the president announced the rescue of 38 worshippers seized in a separate attack last week. 

Gunmen on Friday raided St Mary's co-education school in Niger state, taking 303 children and 12 teachers in one of the largest mass kidnappings in Nigeria. 

The abduction came days after gunmen stormed a secondary school in neighbouring Kebbi state, abducting 25 girls on Monday. 

On Tuesday gunmen raided a church in Kwara state in an attack that was recorded and broadcast online, and showed the service being interrupted by gunfire, worshippers fleeing and screaming being heard outside.

"We have received some good news as fifty pupils escaped and have reunited with their parents," said the Christian Association of Nigeria in a statement.

The number of boys and girls - aged between eight and 18 years - kidnapped from St Mary's is almost half of the school's student population of over 600.

The Nigerian goverment has not commented on the number of children taken from the school, but President Bola Tinubu said on X that "51 out of the missing students of the Catholic School ... have been recovered".

In the same post, Tinubu said: "Thanks to the efforts of our security forces over the last few days, all the 38 worshippers abducted in Eruku, Kwara State have been rescued."

"I will not relent. Every Nigerian, in every state, has the right to safety - and under my watch, we will secure this nation and protect our people," he said.

Mounting security fears in Africa's most populous nation have sparked a wave of school closures across some parts of the country.

Since Islamist militants kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls from Chibok town more than a decade ago, Nigeria has struggled with a spate of mass kidnappings, mostly carried out by criminal gangs looking for ransom payments.

Gunmen often attack remote boarding schools where they know a lack of security presence will make for soft targets. Most victims are released after negotiations.

"DEEP SORROW"

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday made "a heartfelt appeal for the immediate release of the hostages".

He expressed his "deep sorrow, especially for the many young boys and girls kidnapped and for their anguished families," at the end of the Angelus prayer.

The two abduction operations and the attack on a church in the west of the country, in which two people were also killed and dozens abducted, came as US President Donald Trump threatened military action over what he called the persecution of Christians by radical Islamists in Nigeria.

When asked about the recent attacks and kidnappings on Fox News Radio, Trump said "what's happening in Nigeria is a disgrace".

Nearly a week after their capture, two dozen school girls in neighbouring Kebbi state are still missing. 

Security forces have identified locations where they are thought to be held, according to a security source. Only one of the 25 girls managed to escape early in the week.

Nigeria is also dealing with a deadly Islamist insurgency in the northeast of the country, where the violence has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced around two million since it erupted in 2019.

Aisha Yesufu, co-founder of the #BringBackOurGirls group movement which led the campaign for the release of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram 11 years ago, said kidnappings continues because "authorities are doing nothing" to curb the crisis. 

"They're more interested in the propaganda of ... not looking inept and incompetent, rather than actually being interested in the protection of rights and properties," she told AFP.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian chief of World Trade Organization, posted on X that "As a mother I am greatly saddened by the kidnappings in our country particularly of our children and teachers from places of learning".