The Christian Association of Nigeria says 50 of the 315 children kidnapped by gunmen from a Catholic school in Nigeria’s Niger State on Friday 21 November have escaped.
The BBC reports that a major military-led search and rescue operation is under way for the remaining 265 children and 12 teachers who were taken with them.
The students and teachers were taken from St Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger state.
The scale of the abduction surpasses the 276 abducted during the notorious Chibok mass abduction of 2014.
Authorities in several Nigerian states ordered schools to shut following the mass abduction in Niger and another smaller hostage-taking in Kebbi state on Monday when 20 pupils were kidnapped from a boarding school. The BBC says it has been told all 20 are Muslim.
A church was also attacked further south in Kwara state, with two people killed and 38 others abducted.
The BBC notes that last week’s attacks follow claims by right-wing figures in the US, including President Donald Trump, that Christians are being persecuted in Nigeria.
For months, campaigners and politicians in Washington have been alleging that Islamist militants are systematically targeting Christians.
Earlier this month, Trump said he would send troops into Nigeria “guns a-blazing” if the African nation’s government “continues to allow the killing of Christians”.
The Nigerian government has called claims that Christians are being persecuted “a gross misrepresentation of reality”.
The BBC quotes an official as saying that “terrorists attack all who reject their murderous ideology – Muslims, Christians and those of no faith alike”.
Organisations monitoring violence say most of the victims of these groups are Muslim because most attacks happen in the majority-Muslim north of the country.
In the centre of Nigeria, there are also frequently deadly attacks between herders – who are mostly Muslim – on farmers, who are largely Christian.
However, analysts say these are often motivated by competition for resources, such as water or land, rather than religion.
Written by The Daily Friend and republished with permission. The original article can be found here.
