ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria suffered its second mass school abduction this week with authorities confirming an attack on a Catholic school in the conflict-battered northern region of the country on Friday.
A total of 303 schoolchildren and 12 teachers were abducted in Friday’s attack at St. Mary’s School in Niger state’s Papiri community. It wasn’t immediately confirmed who the attackers were. Local police said they have deployed a team to rescue the children.
Friday’s attack happened four days after 25 students were abducted in neighboring Kebbi state.
Niger state closed all its schools following the latest abduction.
School kidnappings have come to define insecurity in Africa’s most populous nation, and analysts say it’s often because armed gangs see schools as “strategic” targets to draw more attention.
UNICEF said last year that only 37% of schools across 10 of the conflict-hit states have early warning systems to detect threats.
The kidnappings are happening amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims of targeted killings against Christians in the West African country. Attacks in Nigeria affect both Christians and Muslims. The school attack earlier this week in Kebbi state was in the Muslim-majority Maga town.
Kidnappers in the past have included Boko Haram, a jihadi insurgency that carried out the mass abduction of 276 Chibok schoolgirls more than a decade ago, bringing the Islamic extremist group to global attention.
But dozens of bandit groups have become active in the hard-hit northern region, often targeting remote villages with a limited security and government presence.
At least 1,500 students have been seized in the years since the Chibok attack, many released only after ransoms were paid.
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