AL HAYAT - Over 220 pupils and teachers kidnapped from Nigerian school

All of the 215 students taken from St Mary's school in Niger state were girls, according to a spokesman for the Christian Association of Nigeria which added that 12 teachers were also abducted.

Amid mounting fears over security in Africa's most populous nation, authorities in the nearby states of Katsina and Plateau ordered all schools to close as a precautionary measure.

The Niger state government closed many schools. President Bola Tiubu cancelled international engagements, including attending the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to handle the crisis which came after gunmen on Monday stormed a secondary school in Kebbi state in northwestern Nigeria, abducting 25 girls.

The two abduction operations and an attack on a church in the west of the country, in which two people were killed, have happened since US President Donald Trump threatened military action over the killing of Christians in Nigeria.

Nigeria is still scarred by the kidnapping of nearly 300 girls by Boko Haram jihadists at Chibok in Borno state. Some were held for years.

- School defied orders -

St Mary's school is in Papiri in the Agwarra area of Niger state.

The Catholic Church in the area said in a statement that "armed attackers invaded" the school between 1:00 am and 3:00 am, abducting pupils, teachers and a security guard, who was shot.

"Some students escaped and parents have started coming (to) pick up their children as the school has to be shutdown," the Christian Association of Nigeria said in its statement which gave the figure of 227 abducted.

For years, heavily armed criminal gangs have been intensifying attacks in rural areas of northwest and central Nigeria, where there is little state presence, killing thousands and conducting kidnappings for ransom.

The gangs have camps in a vast forest straddling several states including Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi and Niger from where they launch attacks.

A UN source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the St Mary's children had probably been taken to the Birnin Gwari forest in nearby Kaduna state.

- 'Increased threat level' -

The Niger state government accused the Catholic school of defying orders to temporarily close all boarding schools in parts of the state following an intelligence report of an "increased threat level" in areas bordering Kebbi.

Niger state police said its tactical units and the military were searching for the pupils. It said security agencies were "combing the forests with a view to rescue the abducted students".

Nigeria's president put security forces on high alert and sent defence minister Alhaji Bello Matawalle to lead the search for the Kebbi school girls.

His office said the minister had "experience in dealing with banditry and mass kidnapping", after he secured the release of 279 students aged between 10 and 17 who had been kidnapped from a secondary school in 2021 in northwestern Zamfara state.

In a separate attack on a church in western Nigeria on Tuesday, gunmen killed two people during a service that was being broadcast online. Dozens of worshippers are believed to have been abducted.

As Nigeria grapples with security challenges on several fronts, hostage-taking has spiralled nationwide and become a favoured tactic of bandit gangs and jihadists.

Although bandits have no ideological leanings and are motivated by financial gain, their increasing alliance with jihadists from the northeast has been a source of concern for authorities and security analysts.

Jihadists have for 16 years been waging an insurrection in the northeast with the aim of establishing a Caliphate.

The jihadist violence has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced around two million in the northeast since it erupted in 2019.

I.al-Ghamdi--al-Hayat