LAGOS: At least 50 of the more than 300 children snatched by gunmen from a Catholic school in Nigeria have escaped their captors, a Christian group said on Sunday, as the president announced the rescue of 38 worshippers seized in a separate attack last week.
Gunmen on Friday raided St Mary’s co-education school in Niger state, taking 303 children and 12 teachers in one of the largest mass kidnappings in Nigeria.
The abduction came days after gunmen stormed a secondary school in neighbouring Kebbi state, taking 25 girls on Monday.
On Tuesday, gunmen raided a church in Kwara state in an attack that was recorded and broadcast online, showing the service being interrupted by gunfire, worshippers fleeing, and screaming being heard outside.
Two people were killed in that attack, but the 38 worshippers who were abducted were later rescued by security forces, President Bola Tinubu said Sunday on his X account.
Separately, the Christian Association of Nigeria said in a statement that “we have received some good news as fifty (St Mary’s) pupils escaped and have reunited with their parents”.
The number of boys and girls — aged between eight and 18 years — kidnapped from St Mary’s is almost half of the school’s student population of over 600.
The Nigerian government has not commented on the number of children taken from the school, but Tinubu said in his X posting that “51 out of the missing” Catholic school students “have been recovered”.
“I will not relent,” he vowed, “and under my watch, we will secure this nation and protect our people.”
Mounting security fears in Africa’s most populous nation have sparked a wave of school closures across some parts of the country. – AFP
