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Hundreds of children are missing in central Nigeria. Somebody abducted them from a Catholic boarding school on Friday. Some kids escaped, but the location of more than 250 is unknown. Something like this has happened before, when Boko Haram abducted schoolgirls more than a decade ago. NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu reports.
EMMANUEL AKINWOTU, BYLINE: The facts are still emerging, but already it's clear this is one of the largest abductions in Nigeria's history.
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MOHAMMED BAGO: We woke up yesterday with a very sad news of the unfortunate incidents of the kidnapping of children.
AKINWOTU: Mohammed Bago, the governor of north-central Niger state, told local media students from St. Mary's primary and secondary Catholic school were abducted and taken into a nearby forest early on Friday morning.
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BAGO: Our mission today is to see how we can rescue these children and all those that have been kidnapped in that incident.
AKINWOTU: The Christian Association of Nigeria later confirmed that 303 children between 10 and 18 years old were kidnapped - almost half of the school's population - alongside 12 teachers. Fifty children have since escaped and were reunited with their families on Sunday, authorities said. No one has claimed responsibility, but armed bandit gangs behind relentless kidnap-for-ransom attacks across north and central Nigeria are now the biggest security threat in Africa's most populous country. The abduction has caused outrage in Nigeria and beyond.
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POPE LEO XIV: (Speaking Italian).
AKINWOTU: Pope Leo XIV used Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square, Rome, to call for the children's immediate release. The attack comes amid rising pressure from President Trump, who has threatened military action to protect Christians. This week, Nigeria sent a delegation to Washington, D.C., to address U.S. concerns.
CHETA NWANZE: President Trump's threat has basically put the Nigerian political class into a state of confusion.
AKINWOTU: Cheta Nwanze is a security analyst and founder of SBM Intelligence in Lagos. He says the root causes of Nigeria's rising insecurity, impunity and weak, overstretched security forces are still being ignored. Friday's mass school abduction was the second in a week. More than 20 Muslim schoolgirls were kidnapped in the nearby Kebbi state on Monday. Just two days after this, a church attack in central Nigeria left two dead and 38 abducted, all of whom have since been released.
NWANZE: We have a situation where the security situation has gotten worse year on year.
AKINWOTU: Meanwhile, local officials have ordered hundreds of schools in northern Nigeria to close amid fears that more attacks could be coming.
Emmanuel Akinwotu, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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