Fifty of the more than 300 students abducted by armed men from a Catholic school in Niger State have managed to escape, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) announced on Sunday.
In its statement, CAN said the children, who fled their captors between Friday and Saturday, have since been reunited with their families. The abducted students are aged between 10 and 18.
The mass abduction occurred on Friday when gunmen stormed St. Mary’s Co-Education School in Niger State, seizing 303 students and 12 teachers in one of Nigeria’s largest school kidnappings. It remains unclear where the victims were taken or how the 50 who escaped found their way home.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but security agencies say tactical teams have been deployed alongside local hunters to locate and rescue the remaining abductees.
“As much as we welcome the return of these 50 children, which offers some relief, I urge everyone to keep praying for the safe rescue of those still in captivity,” CAN’s Niger State chairman, Reverend Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, said in the statement.
Friday’s attack came just days after armed men raided a secondary school in neighbouring Kebbi State, abducting 25 girls. The incidents have heightened security concerns across the country and triggered widespread school closures in several northern states.
