Abuja (TIP)- Gunmen attacked a Catholic boarding school in a western region of Nigeria and abducted more than 200 schoolchildren Friday, Nov 21, the Christian Association of Nigeria said, in the latest in a spate of abductions in Africa’s most populous country. The attack and abductions took place at St. Mary’s School, a Catholic institution in the Agwara local government’s Papiri community. Attackers seized 215 pupils and students as well as 12 teachers, said Daniel Atori, a spokesperson for the Niger state chapter of CAN. “I just got back to the village tonight after I visited the school where I also met with parents,” Atori said in a statement, quoting the Most Rev. Bulus Dauwa, the CAN chairman in Niger. The statement added that the association is working “to ensure our children’s safe return.” The Niger State Police Command said the abductions took place in the early hours, and that military and security forces have since been deployed to the community. It described St. Mary’s as a secondary school, which in Nigeria would serve children between the ages of 12 and 17.
A satellite image shows that the school compound is attached to an adjoining primary school, with more than 50 classroom and dormitory buildings. It’s located near a major road linking the towns of Yelwa and Mokwa.
Dauda Chekula, 62, said that four of his grandchildren, ranging in age from 7 to 10, were among the schoolchildren abducted. “We don’t know what is happening now, because we have not heard anything since this morning,” Chekula said. ”The children who were able to escape have scattered, some of them ran back to their houses and the only information we are getting is that the attackers are still moving with the remaining children into the bush.” The statement by the secretary to the Niger state government said that the abduction occurred, despite prior intelligence warning of heightened threats.
“Regrettably, St. Mary’s School proceeded to reopen and resume academic activities without notifying or seeking clearance from the State Government, thereby exposing pupils and the staff to avoidable risk,” it read.
Umar Yunus, a Papiri resident, said there were only local security arrangements and no official police or government forces securing the school at the time of the attack on Friday.
The Catholic Diocese of Kontagora said in a statement that a security staffer was “badly shot” during the attack. Authorities, meanwhile, closed 47 of the country’s federal unity colleges that are mostly in conflict-battered northern states. The unity colleges — a group of elite government schools with attendance drawn from across the country — are to be closed immediately, according to a circular issued by Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Education. The abductions took place days after gunmen on Monday attacked a high school and abducted 25 schoolgirls in the neighbouring Kebbi state, in Maga, around 170 kilometres from Papiri.
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