Overview
- Church officials said 50 of the 303 abducted children escaped individually between Friday and Saturday and reunited with their families.
- Approximately 253 students and 12 teachers remain in captivity, and no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
- The local Catholic diocese reported the assailants moved through dormitories for nearly three hours during the early‑morning raid on the Papiri campus.
- Security forces have deployed tactical teams alongside local hunters, Niger state has shut all schools, and federal authorities ordered 47 boarding colleges closed; President Bola Tinubu canceled foreign travel to manage the crisis.
- Pope Leo XIV issued a public appeal for the hostages’ immediate release, while U.S. officials pressed Nigeria to act as the abduction followed a separate school raid in Kebbi earlier in the week.