A father told the BBC he felt helpless as he watched gunmen on motorcycles kidnap dozens of children, including his son, after storming a Catholic boarding school in northern Nigeria in the early hours of Friday.
The father said he was asleep when he was awakened by the noise of the gunmen passing by his house with the children they had abducted from St Mary’s School in Papiri village, Niger state.
“They [the children] They were trafficked on foot in the same way that shepherds control their flocks. Some children fell and the men kicked them and ordered them to stand up.
“The gunmen were on about 50 motorcycles while they were being controlled,” said the father, whose name we have changed to Theo for his safety.
Speaking to the BBC in the bedroom where his son used to sleep, Theo said he was in no position to stop the kidnapping.
“I wanted to go [to help] but I thought better of it. Even if he went, what could he do? “I couldn’t do anything,” he told the BBC, adding that he called the police, but when they arrived it was too late.
The Christian Association of Nigeria has said 303 students and 12 staff were removed from the school, but that 50 of the children managed to escape and were reunited with their families.
The school was run by the president of the association’s Niger chapter, who shared a list of those kidnapped with the BBC.
However, police said they were only aware that a few children escaped on the night of the kidnapping and could not confirm that 50 more had escaped.
Niger State Governor Umar Bago told local media that the number of abducted students had been exaggerated and was “far, far below” 303.
The governor blamed school authorities for opening the school despite threats from unknown gunmen four years ago and again two months ago.
“The schools in that area have been closed for four years. I was surprised to find out that the school is still open,” Bago said.
He also insisted that the attack was just a “scare” and that all the students would be rescued sooner or later.
Along with other parents, Theo has been camping outside the school, angry with the government’s response to the kidnappings.
“Our children were kidnapped, but the government doesn’t seem to pay attention,” Theo said.
He said he was frustrated because the state governor had not visited the school and had only gone to a nearby community to talk to security agencies and local leaders.
“We have come to the conclusion that the government does not care about us; we feel that we are not part of the country, that we have been abandoned.”
The pain endured by the parents of the children who remain missing is all too evident.
“I’m sad, my whole life is full of sadness,” said one mother, whose son was among the children kidnapped by the gunmen.
“He is my only son, he is my firstborn, please help us,” she said.
Another father, Lucas, told the BBC that two of his children had been kidnapped, but the youngest, a six-year-old boy, was lucky and managed to avoid falling into the clutches of the kidnappers.
“When I saw him, I got very excited. I called his name, he turned around and ran towards me. I hugged him and hugged him,” she said.
The northern part of Niger, where Papiri is located, has recently become a hotspot for kidnappings for ransom.
The payment of ransoms has been banned in an attempt to cut off the supply of money to criminal gangs, but with little effect.
The BBC crew drove about 500 kilometers (310 miles) to Papiri from Minna, the capital of Niger state, and were on several occasions advised not to take certain routes and, for periods, escorted by police.
Many blame the crisis on the size of the State. In terms of land area, Niger is the largest state in Nigeria and larger than European countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands.
It also has many forests, which criminal gangs, locally called bandits, use as camps and routes to connect with other states in Nigeria, as well as neighboring countries.
The school kidnapping was the third in Nigeria in a week.
Last Monday, more than 20 students, who according to the BBC are Muslim, were kidnapped from a boarding school in Kebbi state, on the border with Niger.
A church was also attacked further south in Kwara state, killing two people and kidnapping dozens of worshipers.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu canceled his trip to the G20 summit in South Africa over the weekend to address the crisis.
On Sunday he posted on social media that the 38 worshipers kidnapped in Kwara State had been rescued.
The spate of kidnappings has forced the closure of many boarding schools across Nigeria, with parents rushing to pick up their children.
The government is under pressure from US President Donald Trump, who warned earlier this month that he would send troops into Nigeria with “guns blazing” if it “continues to allow the killing of Christians” by Islamist militants.
The Nigerian government has said that claims that Christians are being persecuted are “a gross misrepresentation of reality” as “terrorists attack all who reject their murderous ideology: Muslims, Christians and those without faith alike.”
While some kidnappings are carried out by Islamist militant groups, many are carried out for ransom by criminal gangs, highlighting the deep security crisis in the country.
