The association’s president, who reportedly visited the school on Friday, said more than 80 students had been captured after trying to escape during the kidnapping by armed assailants. The students were both men and women, ranging in age from 10 to 18 years old.
Second mass kidnapping this week
The number of girls abducted from the central Catholic school exceeds the 276 girls abducted during the infamous 2014 Chibok incident and is the latest in a series of mass abductions, including earlier this week when 25 pupils were abducted from a school in Kebbi state.
No group has yet claimed responsibility and authorities have deployed security forces to try to locate the students and their captors. Niger State has reportedly closed all schools until further notice.
Perpetrators must be held accountable
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, Nigeria’s former environment minister, said in a social media post that schools should be “sanctuaries for education, not targets… We must protect schools and hold perpetrators accountable.”
The top UN official in the country, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Mohamed Fall, said the news of another mass abduction was heartbreaking, just days after the Kebbi abductions.
He conveyed his condolences to the families of those abducted and their communities, adding that every effort must be made to ensure the safe return of students and staff.
“It is time to fully implement the Safe School Principle,” he said, which was launched at the First International Conference on Safe Schools in Oslo, Norway, in 2015. Nigeria was one of the nations that endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration that year.
Support the victims
The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said this week that it continues to work closely with government partners, civil society and communities, to strengthen child protection systems in line with the declaration that no child should be at risk while pursuing an education.
The United Nations Agency for Culture, Education and Science (UNESCO) office in Nigeria also condemned the latest mass kidnapping on Friday, saying schools should never be targets.
“We support the victims, their families and the Nigerian Government and call for the immediate release of all abducted children,” the agency said.