Overview
- Church officials say 50 of the 303 abducted pupils fled between Friday and Saturday, leaving about 253 children and 12 teachers still in captivity.
- Gunmen attacked St Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger State, around 2 a.m. on Friday and operated for hours, seizing boys and girls aged roughly 8 to 18.
- No group has claimed responsibility as security forces and local hunters pursue the kidnappers in ongoing search-and-rescue efforts.
- Niger State ordered all schools shut and the federal education ministry temporarily closed dozens of boarding colleges; President Bola Tinubu canceled foreign travel to manage the crisis.
- Pope Leo XIV appealed for the hostages’ immediate release, and U.S. officials pressed Abuja for action, with the mass abduction following a separate kidnapping of 25 schoolgirls in Kebbi earlier in the week.