Pope Leo XIV called, on Sunday, for the release of over 300 hostages taken from a Catholic school in one of the largest mass kidnappings in Nigeria.
“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) on Saturday said gunmen had kidnapped more than 300 students and teachers in raids on two schools in the country.
“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.
Gunmen on Monday stormed a secondary school in Kebbi state, abducting 25 girls. That was followed by an early Friday raid on St Mary’s co-education school in Niger state.
The two abduction operations and an attack on a church in the west of the country, in which two people were killed and dozens abducted, came as US President Donald Trump threatened military action over what he called the persecution of Christians by radical Islamists in Nigeria.
Nigeria is still scarred by the kidnapping of nearly 300 girls by Boko Haram jihadists at Chibok in northeastern Borno state more than a decade ago. Some of those girls are still missing.
Meanwhile, Former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, has warned that the recent wave of mass abductions in parts of northern Nigeria may be a deliberate tactic by bandits who fear possible international military action following recent comments by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Gana said indications from the pattern of attacks suggest that the criminals are now seizing schoolchildren and villagers as human shields to protect themselves from anticipated aerial strikes.
He stated this on Saturday at a reception in Abuja in honour of the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, as Chairman, World Customs Organisation, and a fundraising dinner for the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR).
His warning comes as Nigeria witnesses a renewed escalation of mass kidnappings.
Gana disclosed that shortly before arriving at the event, he received a call suggesting that bandits may be reacting to Trump’s recent criticism of the killings in Nigeria and his declaration that America was prepared to act militarily if the situation deteriorated further.
The former minister, a professor of geography, added that most recent abductions occurred near forested corridors, which the attackers consider safe zones if aerial operations intensify.
He said: “It should become extremely worrying, especially for elders, statesmen, and fathers of the nation, to see younger ones being abducted here and there in various parts of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Somebody phoned me just before I came here to say that it would appear that the bandits and others who are causing this trouble are taking the threat from the President of the United States seriously.
“Therefore, it would appear that they are now mobilising human shields to protect them from wherever they are. In various places, they are just going ahead to pick up young people. And it would appear that maybe that person really has a point.”
