Christian group in Nigeria says 50 students abducted by gunmen have escaped

A Christian organization monitoring the incident claims that at least 50 of the more than 300 students who were kidnapped by gunmen from a Catholic school in Nigeria have escaped their captors.

In one of the largest mass kidnappings in the nation’s history, the gunmen stormed Saint Mary’s Catholic School in north-central Nigeria on Friday, bringing 303 students and 12 teachers to the school.

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The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said the 50 pupils who fled between Friday and Saturday were safe and had been reunited with their families in a statement released on Sunday.

Reverend Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, CAN’s chairman in Niger State, said in the statement, “I urge you all to continue in your prayers for the rescue and safe return of the remaining victims.”

Just four days prior to the Catholic school’s abduction, armed men kidnapped 25 schoolgirls and killed the vice-principal of the school in northwest Nigeria.

The incident occurred in Maga, a town in the nearby Kebbi State community, about 170 kilometers (106 miles) away from the attack on Monday. 24 more girls are still missing, compared to 24 who have since escaped and returned safely.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks, and neither party’s identity has been revealed in either case.

With police, military, and even local hunters present, regional authorities and security organizations have launched search-and-rescue operations in nearby forests and along escape routes.

The abduction of children and their educators was deemed a “brutal and grave violation of children’s rights” by the UNICEF, which called for their immediate release.

President Donald Trump has threatened military action against Nigeria over what he has described as “targeted killings of the country’s Christians,” a claim that has drawn the support of several prominent right-wing and Christian evangelical figures in the US.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth claimed to have met with Nigeria’s Nuhu Ribadu and his team a day prior to a social media post on Friday to discuss what Hegseth described as “the horrifying violence against Christians in their country.”

Hegseth stated that his organization is “working fervently with Nigeria to put an end to jihadist terrorists’ persecution of Christians.”