Nigeria is experiencing one of the worst mass kidnappings: 315 people were taken from school

More than 300 children and staff are believed to have been abducted by gunmen from a Catholic school in central Nigeria, making it one of the worst mass abductions the country has ever seen.

The Christian Association of Nigeria said 303 students and 12 teachers were abducted from St Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger State, substantially more than previously estimated.

He said the figures have been revised upwards “after a verification exercise.”

The kidnapping occurs amid a wave of attacks by armed groups. The revised number of people abducted exceeds the 276 abducted during the infamous 2014 Chibok mass abduction.

Local police said gunmen stormed the school around 02:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on Friday morning and kidnapped students staying there.

Dominic Adamu, whose daughters attend school but were not taken, told the BBC: “Everyone is weak… this took everyone by surprise.”

A distraught woman tearfully told the BBC that her nieces, aged six and 13, had been kidnapped, adding: “I just want them to come home.”

Police said security agencies were “combing the forests with a view to rescuing the kidnapped students.”

Initially it was reported that 215 students had been admitted, but the figure has since been revised upwards. The new figure is believed to represent almost half of the school’s student population, the AFP news agency reports.

Niger state authorities said the school had ignored an order to close all boarding schools following intelligence warnings about an increased risk of attacks.

They said in a statement that the move exposed students and staff to “avoidable risk.” The school has not commented on that claim.

The kidnapping of people for ransom by criminal gangs, known locally as bandits, has become a major problem in many parts of Nigeria.

The payment of ransoms has been banned in an attempt to cut off the supply of money to criminal gangs, but this has had little effect.

Friday’s mass kidnapping was the third such attack in the country in a week.

On Monday, more than 20 students, who the BBC says are Muslim, were kidnapped from a boarding school in the neighboring state of Kebbi.

A church was also attacked further south in Kwara state, killing two people and kidnapping 38 others.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has postponed his foreign trips, including this weekend’s G20 summit in South Africa, to address security concerns.

The central government has ordered the closure of more than 40 federal universities and public schools have been closed in some states.

But growing insecurity is fueling anger and fear in Nigeria, with citizens demanding stronger measures to protect children and communities.

The mass kidnapping comes after claims by right-wing figures in the United States, including President Donald Trump, that Christians are being persecuted in Nigeria, a charge rejected by the Nigerian government.

For months, activists and politicians in Washington have been alleging that Islamist militants are systematically attacking Christians in Nigeria.

Earlier this month, Trump said he would send troops to Nigeria “with guns” if the African nation’s government “continues to allow the murder of Christians.”

The Nigerian government has called claims that Christians are being persecuted “a gross misrepresentation of reality.”

One official stated that “terrorists attack all who reject their murderous ideology: Muslims, Christians and those without faith alike.”

In the northeast, jihadist groups have been fighting the state for more than a decade.

Organizations that monitor violence say most of the victims of these groups are Muslims because most attacks occur in the Muslim-majority north of the country.

Deadly attacks between mostly Muslim herders and mostly Christian farmers also frequently occur in central Nigeria.

However, analysts say these are often motivated by competition for resources, such as water or land, rather than religion.

The Islamist militant group Boko Haram took 276 girls from their school in the city of Chibok in 2014.

The incident attracted international attention and sparked a global campaign calling for his return, which included an intervention from the then First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.

Many have since escaped or been freed, but around 100 remain missing.