Christian group says 315 people taken in latest Nigerian school kidnapping

A CHRISTIAN GROUP has said the number of students and teachers taken in Nigeria’s second school abduction in a week was 315, revising upwards an earlier figure of 227.

The early Friday raid on St Mary’s school in Niger state in central Nigeria came after gunmen on Monday stormed a secondary school in neighbouring Kebbi state, abducting 25 girls.

The Christian Association of Nigeria said the new number came “after a verification exercise” following the early Friday mass kidnapping, and added that “The total number of victims abducted … is now 303 students and 12 teachers”.

The number of students kidnapped is almost half of the school’s 629 enrolled pupils.

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Authorities in the nearby states of Katsina and Plateau have ordered all schools to close as a precautionary measure.

The Niger state government closed many schools and President Bola Tinubu cancelled international engagements, including attending the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to handle the crisis.

The two abduction operations and an attack on a church in the west of the country, in which two people were killed, have happened since US President Donald Trump threatened military action over what he called the killing of Christians by radical Islamists in Nigeria.

Nigeria is still scarred by the kidnapping of nearly 300 girls by Boko Haram jihadists at Chibok in northestern Borno state more than a decade ago. Some of those girls are still missing.