Hundreds of desperate parents have made a public and painful appeal to the Nigerian government, pleading for news on the rescue of their children who were abducted from a Catholic school in a brazen attack last week.
A Nation Gripped by Fear
The distressing scene unfolded on Friday at the school in north-central Nigeria, where families gathered to voice their anguish. The abduction occurred in the early hours of November 21, when armed gunmen stormed the school premises and carted away more than 300 students and staff members.
According to school authorities, a small group of about 50 children managed to escape their captors. However, the fate of the remaining 250+ children hangs in the balance, leaving their families in a state of unbearable suspense and grief.
Voices of the Victims
The human cost of this tragedy was laid bare by parents like Abuchi Nwolisa, who spoke to The Associated Press. He revealed the chilling detail that some of the children were taken directly from their sleeping beds, highlighting their vulnerability. "The children they took, some of them are still of tender age," Nwolisa stated, encapsulating the horror felt by the community.
The scale of the impact on individual families is immense. Stephen Okafor, a spokesperson for the Minna Catholic Mission, explained the compounded suffering, telling the AP, "We have parents who have two, three, five children with the abductors, and that is why we are here to tell the world that this is real."
A Deepening National Crisis
This incident is not isolated. Nigeria has been rocked by two separate mass abductions of schoolchildren in the past two weeks alone. In a separate attack in Kebbi, gunmen abducted 30 students before the government eventually secured their release.
This pattern of violence has become a common and terrifying feature in the West African nation. Since the infamous 2014 Chibok abduction, armed groups specialising in kidnappings for ransom have perpetrated at least a dozen mass abductions of school students. A tally by the AP indicates that at least 1,799 students have been kidnapped since then, with some never being rescued.
In response to the escalating security situation, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu declared a state of emergency earlier this week, a move aimed at bolstering the country’s police force. The crisis has also attracted international attention, recently flaring tensions after former US President Donald Trump threatened military intervention, citing persecution of Christians. The Nigerian government has rejected these claims, maintaining that the security threat is complex and affects the entire country, not just one religious group.
