Latest news Kidnapping of hundreds of children and worshippers shocks Nigeria
In Nigeria, a particularly serious wave of mass kidnappings in the north-west of the country has caused horror. On Friday, gunmen abducted 303 children and 12 teachers from a Catholic primary and secondary school in Niger state, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria. The previous Monday, 25 girls were abducted from a state school in Kebbi State. Shortly afterwards, attackers seized 38 worshippers at a church in Kwara State. Several people were shot dead in the attacks.
23.11.2025, 17:00
23.11.2025, 19:31
SDA
According to Nigerian media, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) reported that 50 of the children who were abducted from the Catholic school had managed to escape in the meantime and had returned to their families. According to the owner of the school, a Catholic bishop, 253 pupils are still being held by the kidnappers.
The governor of the state of Kwara announced that all 38 abductees from the church had been released on Sunday. He thanked the security forces and local communities. However, the exact circumstances of the release remained unclear.
Particular fear for young children among the abductees
Many young children are said to be among the abductees. Media in the West African state quoted parents who spoke of six-year-olds. Children under the age of ten are also said to be among those abducted from the church. There is particular concern for the youngest: abductees are held in harsh conditions and often die during ongoing negotiations or search operations.
Pope Leo XIV expressed his grief on Sunday before the traditional Angelus prayer in St. Peter's Square in Rome. "I feel great pain, especially for the many kidnapped boys and girls and their desperate families," he said. "I make a sorrowful appeal to all concerned to release the hostages immediately and call on the competent authorities to take appropriate and timely decisions to ensure their release."
Media: At least 2,500 schoolchildren kidnapped in eleven years
In the north and center of Africa's most populous country with more than 220 million inhabitants, both criminal gangs and Islamist terrorist groups kidnap people time and again. In April 2014, the abduction of 276 schoolgirls by the Islamist militia Boko Haram in Chibok in the north-eastern state of Borno received worldwide attention. 82 of the girls are still missing today.
Based on UN figures and its own research, the Nigerian newspaper "Vanguard" calculated that at least another 2,500 schoolgirls and schoolchildren were abducted in the eleven years following Chibok - plus a presumably unknown number of unreported cases.
"Bandits" want to extort money
So far, no group has publicly claimed responsibility for the most recent abductions. However, armed criminal groups, known locally as "bandits", are particularly active in the affected region. Unlike the Islamist groups, they are not pursuing any political goals with the kidnappings, but want to extort money. According to Nigerian media reports, relatives of those kidnapped from the church have received ransom demands amounting to 100 million naira (around 60,000 euros).
Kidnappings have become a terrible part of everyday life in Nigeria. According to the security consulting firm SBM Intel, at least 4,722 people were kidnapped in 997 incidents between June 2024 and June 2025 alone. At least 762 people were killed in this context.
Kidnappers collected the equivalent of at least 1.6 million euros in ransom during this period - and demanded far more. Ransom payments have been banned in Nigeria since 2022. In practice, however, families sell off everything they have in order to ransom their relatives. As the national currency, the naira, has plummeted, kidnappers are demanding ever higher sums. At the same time, unemployment, insecurity and hopelessness are driving more and more young men to join the gangs.
Security forces are barely able to contain the situation
The military is poorly paid and poorly equipped, even though Nigeria, as one of the continent's largest economies, has one of the largest armies. Crises and corruption have deeply undermined state power.
According to official reports, the security forces' efforts to search for the abductees have so far been unsuccessful. In the neighboring state of Zamfara, however, police rescued 25 women and children on Saturday - just a few hours after they had been abducted from a village.
Authorities in several states in the north of the country have ordered the closure of all schools or the evacuation of boarding schools. The Nigerian government also closed all state schools in particularly vulnerable regions. President Bola Tinubu decided not to attend the G20 summit in order to focus on the security situation.
"Most dangerous country in the world for Christians" - but also many Muslim victims
US President Donald Trump recently threatened military action if Nigeria did not take action to protect Christians. Conflicts and violence in the country, whose inhabitants are roughly half Christian and half Muslim, are indeed increasingly taking place along religious dividing lines - although experts do not usually consider these to be the cause. Christian communities nevertheless accuse the state of failing to protect them.
The US non-governmental organization International Christian Concern, which documents the persecution of Christians worldwide, described Nigeria as the "most dangerous country in the world for Christians" in 2022. At the same time, Muslims are also victims of terrorist or bandit attacks as well as acts of revenge.
