(LifeSiteNews) — Gunmen have raided a Catholic school in Nigeria and abducted over 50 children as the violence against Christians continues.
In the early hours of Friday morning, the armed attackers arrived at St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in Papiri, Niger State. According to a statement by the Diocese of Kontagora, which confirmed the attack, the assault happened “between 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m.” A security guard was shot and badly injured in the process.
The diocese “strongly condemned the attack and expressed deep concern for the safety of the kidnapped children and their families.”
According to Nigerian TV station Arise News, 52 schoolchildren were kidnapped by the attackers. The BBC reports that St. Mary’s is a mixed-sex boarding school.
READ: Nigerian gunmen kill at least two, kidnap several in latest anti-Christian attack
Reuters reports that security agencies were on the scene on Friday, searching the area to find and rescue the kidnapped children. The Niger state government alleged that the school had ignored instructions to boarding schools to remain closed due to the heightened chance of attacks.
Nigeria has been suffering from Islamist insurgency in the northeast, with killing sprees and abductions, often targeting Christians, happening on a regular basis. This is the third major attack reported this week alone. On Wednesday, gunmen killed at least two people and kidnapped several more in an attack on a church in Eruku, a town in the central Kwara state. Earlier this week, attackers abducted 25 girls from a predominantly Muslim boarding school.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has canceled foreign trips to South Africa and Angola, where he was scheduled to attend an African Union-European Union summit and a G20 summit. Tinubu has sent a delegation of government officials led by Nigeria’s national security advisor to the U.S. to meet with American government officials.
The government of the African country has been under growing pressure from the Trump administration since the U.S. president announced that he is preparing the U.S. military to potentially “wipe out” Islamic terrorists who are killing and kidnapping thousands of Christians each year, if the Nigerian government is unable or unwilling to stop the attacks.
A 2025 Global Christian Relief (GCR) Red List report has found that Nigeria is the most dangerous place for Christians in the world. The report detailed how most of the killings in Nigeria occur in northern states governed by Islamic sharia law, where Christians “often live in remote villages in semi-arid landscapes, making them particularly vulnerable to attacks.”
