Students have been abducted from a Catholic school in central Nigeria by armed gangs, according to authorities, in the second such incident in less than a week.
“The Niger State government has received with deep sadness the disturbing news of the kidnapping of pupils from St. Mary’s School in Agwara local government area,” Abubakar Usman, the state government secretary, said in a statement on Friday.
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“The exact number of abducted pupils is yet to be confirmed as security agencies continue to assess the situation.”
Local TV station Arise News reported that 52 students were abducted in the incident.
The school kidnappings and an attack on a church earlier this week come weeks after United States President Donald Trump threatened military action over what he described as targeted killings of Nigeria’s Christians, a narrative rejected by the Nigerian government, which says Muslims are the majority victims of attacks by armed groups.
Trump’s assertions echo claims that have gained traction among right-wing and Christian evangelical circles in recent months.
The attack comes just days after armed men stormed a secondary school in Kebbi State in northwestern Nigeria, abducting 25 schoolgirls early on Monday morning. One later escaped, and 24 are still missing.
Niger State police said their tactical units and the military have been deployed to search for the pupils.
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Police received a report at about 2am (01:00 GMT) that “some armed bandits invaded St. Mary’s Private [Catholic] Secondary School, and abducted a yet to be ascertained number of students from the school’s hostel”, the force said in a statement.
It said security agencies were “combing the forests with a view to rescue the abducted students”.
Nigerian security forces have been placed on high alert this week as the country faces an uncomfortable spotlight on its security situation.
In a separate attack on a church in western Nigeria on Tuesday, armed men killed two people during a service that was recorded and broadcast online. Dozens of worshippers are believed to have been abducted.
Meanwhile, gunmen, who kidnapped 38 worshippers from a church in Nigeria’s Kwara State on Tuesday, are demanding a ransom of 100 million naira (roughly $69,000) per worshipper, a church official told the Reuters news agency on Friday.
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