A general view of a classroom at Kuriga school in Kuririga on March 8, 2024, where more than 250 pupils kidnapped by gunmen. Photo: HAIDAR UMAR
Gunmen in Nigeria kidnapped students from a Catholic school in the early hours of Friday (local time), in the latest attack after United States President Donald Trump threatened military action over the treatment of Christians in the West African country.
Police and local government in Niger state, where the attack happened, confirmed that students had been abducted from St. Mary's School, but they did not say how many.
TV station Arise News reported that 52 students had been kidnapped.
Nigeria's security situation has been under heightened scrutiny since Trump threatened "fast" military action if the country fails to crack down on the killing of Christians.
Its government says Trump's claims that Christians face persecution in Nigeria are a misrepresentation.
Police said security agencies were on the scene of Friday's attack on the Catholic school, combing nearby forests to try to rescue those abducted.
The Niger state government said the school had ignored an instruction that boarding schools should be closed because of intelligence indicating a high chance of attacks.
Other attacks this week include the kidnapping on Monday of 25 schoolgirls from a boarding school in Kebbi state and an attack on a church in Kwara state, in which a church official told Reuters that 38 worshippers were taken by gunmen.
The church official said the gunmen had issued a ransom demand of 100 million naira (roughly NZ$123,000) per worshipper.
Kebbi, Kwara and Niger states border one another.
This week's spate of attacks prompted Nigerian President Bola Tinubu to cancel foreign trips to South Africa and Angola, where he was due to attend a G20 summit and an African Union-European Union summit.
Tinubu also dispatched a delegation led by the country's national security adviser to the United States to meet US lawmakers and government officials.
- Reuters
