Mass Student Abductions at St Mary’s School, Nigeria

In the remote community of Papiri in Niger State, an ordinary school term has been abruptly upended. In the early hours of November 21, gunmen attacked St Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary School and carried away more than 300 students and teachers, in one of Nigeria’s largest school kidnappings since the Chibok abduction in 2014.

Church officials and local authorities now say that 303 students, aged about 10 to 18, and 12 teachers were taken from the boarding school complex, a total of 315 abductees. The Christian Association of Nigeria reported that this higher figure followed a verification exercise and final census after families came forward to report missing children. The school’s enrolment stood at 629 pupils before the attack.

Security forces, including the police, military units and local hunters, have been deployed to carry out search and rescue operations in the surrounding bush and rural areas. As of November 23, no mass rescue has been announced, and relatives say they have only sparse and uncertain information about the hostages’ condition or whereabouts.

A night attack and a familiar pattern
Witnesses describe heavily armed men arriving late on Thursday and remaining into Friday morning, moving through the school compound, forcing pupils and staff from their dormitories and classrooms and loading them onto vehicles and motorbikes before disappearing into remote terrain. Many of those taken were seized as they tried to flee.

St Mary’s is owned by the Catholic Diocese of Kontagora and managed by the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles, serving both primary and secondary students. Church statements describe it as a long established Catholic institution where parents expect their children to be occupied with lessons, prayers and ordinary school routines, not caught up in a mass abduction.

No group has claimed responsibility. Officials say the raid fits a pattern of ransom driven banditry within a wider security crisis in northern and central Nigeria, where armed gangs and extremist factions have repeatedly targeted schools, villages and places of worship.

In the same week, gunmen abducted 25 schoolgirls from a boarding school in the town of Maga in neighboring Kebbi State, about 170 kilometers from Papiri, and a separate attack on a church service in Kwara State left at least two people dead and 38 worshippers abducted. Taken together, these incidents form a bleak sequence that underlines how exposed both educational and religious institutions have become to armed attacks.

Condemnation at home and abroad
The Papiri abduction has drawn strong condemnation within Nigeria and internationally. UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed has called for the immediate release of all hostages, saying that schools should be sanctuaries, not targets, and urging the authorities to strengthen protection around classrooms and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.

The Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles and the wider Catholic Church have appealed for global prayers and solidarity, while Vatican media have described the attack as one of the most serious mass abductions yet seen in Nigeria and noted that Muslim communities in the region also continue to suffer heavily from violence.

Within Niger State, Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago has praised security agencies for what he describes as rapid deployment and continuing operations, even as he acknowledges earlier confusion over the numbers. State lawmakers have said that no child should be left at the mercy of terrorists and have called for stronger military and intelligence efforts to dismantle the kidnapping networks that trouble rural communities.

Closed classrooms and an uncertain future
The attack has had swift consequences for schooling. Niger State has ordered all schools closed until further notice, effectively turning the shutdown into an early Christmas break, and officials say the step is intended to forestall further kidnappings.

At the federal level, authorities have also ordered the immediate closure of 47 so called unity colleges, many of them in high risk northern areas, as a precaution after the kidnappings in Niger and Kebbi. Other states, including Katsina and Plateau, have likewise moved to close schools in response to rising attacks on educational institutions.

Parents and education advocates warn that repeated closures, coupled with the constant fear of abductions, are persuading families to keep children, especially girls, at home. International agencies have already noted that many schools in conflict affected northern states lack reliable early warning systems, and there is growing concern that years of slow progress in widening access to education could be quietly reversed if the current wave of kidnappings continues.