Armed assailants abduct more schoolchildren in Nigeria

Nigeria State Police said it received reports of 'armed bandits' entering St. Mary’s secondary school, which boards students aged 12 to 17, at about 2 a.m. on Friday.

Armed assailants attacked a Catholic boarding school in western Nigeria early Friday, kidnapping several children and staff members, days after 25 schoolgirls were abducted from a neighbouring state and 38 church worshippers were kidnapped in another.

Friday’s attack occurred at St. Mary’s School in Agwara Local Government’s Papiri community, Abubakar Usman, the secretary to the Niger State Government, said in a Facebook statement.

He did not share the number of students and staff kidnapped or who could be responsible for the attack.

Local media broadcaster Arise TV said 52 schoolchildren were abducted, The Associated Press reported. Nigerian authorities have not confirmed the numbers.

Military security forces and tactical units were deployed to the scene early Friday, Niger State Police said in a statement, describing the institution as a secondary school educating children aged 12 to 17.

Police received reports of “armed bandits” entering the school around 2 a.m., according to the statement.

Satellite images of the school, reviewed by the AP, show that the St. Mary’s campus is connected to an adjoining primary school building and is located near a main road linking the towns of Yelwa and Mokwa.

According to Usman, the school failed to heed a warning of heightened threats, which he wrote included a clear directive to “suspend all construction activities and to temporarily close all boarding schools within the affected zone as a precautionary measure.”