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Pope Leo XIV on Sunday urged the immediate release of more than 300 hostages abducted from St Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in Papiri, located in the Agwarra Local Government Area of Niger State.
“I learned with immense sadness the news of the kidnappings of priests, faithful, and students in Nigeria and Cameroon,” he said.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said on Saturday that gunmen had abducted more than 300 students and teachers during attacks on the school in Niger State.
“I make a heartfelt appeal for the immediate release of the hostages,” Leo said, expressing his “deep sorrow, especially for the many young boys and girls kidnapped and for their anguished families”.
“Let us pray for these brothers and sisters of ours and that churches and schools may always and everywhere remain places of safety and hope,” he said at the end of the Angelus prayer.
The attackers stormed the school premises, reportedly a private Catholic institution, in the early hours of Friday.
Sources said the gunmen arrived in large numbers, riding on more than 60 motorcycles and accompanied by a van.
They were also said to have shot the school’s gatekeeper, leaving him critically injured.
A source in Agwara who confirmed the incident said, “Yes, it happened between 3 and 4 a.m. The number of students abducted is not yet confirmed.”
Reports say that several teachers were also forcibly taken during the raid.
Earlier, on Monday, gunmen attacked a secondary school in Kebbi State, abducting 25 schoolgirls.
These incidents, together with a separate attack on a church in Kwara State — which resulted in the deaths of two people and the abduction of dozens more — come amid threats of military intervention by US President Donald Trump, who cited the persecution of Christians by radical Islamist groups in Nigeria.
