Fifty kidnapped Catholic school students in Nigeria escape, more than 250 still being held

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Fifty kidnapped Catholic school students in Nigeria escape, more than 250 still being held

8:39 CAT | 24 Nov 2025

More than 300 students from St Mary's Catholic School in Nigeria were kidnapped on Friday.[Photo: AFP: Ifeanyi Immanuel Bakwenye]

Fifty of the more than 300 students kidnapped from a Nigerian Catholic school on Friday have escaped and been reunited with their parents, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Catholic church.

But about 253 kidnapped students as well as 12 staff members and teachers are still being held captive, CAN chairman Bulus Yohanna, a Catholic bishop and proprietor of the school, said on Sunday.

In a statement, Mr Yohanna said the pupils escaped between Friday and Saturday.

Parents rushed to the school, located in Niger state, to the west of the capital Abuja, after hearing that some children were free.

Amose Ibrahim was one of the parents who went to St Mary’s School to check if any of his three children had escaped.

“Unfortunately, they were not among the escapees,” said Mr Ibrahim, whose youngest child is six years old.

“As of now, many parents and their loved ones are roaming around the school.”

VIP bodyguards reassigned to policing

Friday’s attack on St Mary’s School was just the latest in a spate of school attacks that has forced some Nigerian states to close schools.

More than two dozen schoolgirls were abducted by armed men from their predominantly Muslim boarding school in Kebbi last Monday, and the government has ordered the closure of 47 colleges in the country’s north.

The attacks also come amid heightened scrutiny from US President Donald Trump, who this month threatened military action against Nigeria — a US ally — over the failure of the government to prevent attacks on Christians in the country.

On Sunday, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu reassigned VIPs’ police bodyguards to core policing duties and ordered the recruitment of 30,000 new police officers, acknowledging that “many parts of Nigeria” are not adequately policed.

A report published last month by the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) said more than 100,000 members of Nigeria’s estimated 371,000-strong police force were “assigned to the protection of politicians and VIPs, rather than to tasks serving the general population”.

“This shortage in manpower, as well as corruption and insufficient resources, have resulted in delayed responses to crimes and numerous communities being left without protection,” the report said.

Pope Leo pleads for children’s release

In response to the St Mary’s kidnappings, Pope Leo pleaded on Sunday for the immediate release of those who had been taken, in what was one of the worst mass kidnappings ever recorded in Nigeria.

“I feel great pain, especially for the many young men and women who have been abducted and for their anguished families,” the pope said at the end of a mass in St Peter’s Square.

“I make a heartfelt appeal for the immediate release of the hostages and urge … authorities to [make] appropriate and timely decisions to ensure their release.”

Also on Sunday, Mr Tinubu confirmed a statement by the governor of Kwara state that Nigerian security forces had rescued 38 people who were abducted during a service at Christ Apostolic Church in Kwara.

At least two people died during the attack.

Source: ABC Net Australia with Reuters/AFP