Fifty of more than 300 students kidnapped from a Nigerian Catholic school last week have escaped and have been reunited with their parents, the Catholic Church and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said on Sunday.
But around 253 of those kidnapped, including 12 staff members and teachers, are still with the kidnappers, said CAN chairman Bulus Yohanna, a Catholic Bishop who is also the proprietor of the school.
In a statement, Yohanna said the pupils escaped between Friday and Saturday.
How did this happen?
If confirmed, Friday's attack on St Mary's School in Niger state — roughly the size of Serbia — would be Nigeria's worst school abduction since the kidnapping of 276 Chibok girls by Boko Haram in the northeast in 2014.
The Christian Association of Nigeria said 303 students and 12 teachers were taken from the school.
No one has publicly claimed responsibility for the latest assaults, although the perpetrators of a separate church raid on Tuesday last week appear to belong to an armed gang motivated by ransom money.
The attacks are indiscriminate and follow a similar pattern. Gangs known locally as bandits arrive, shoot sporadically to scare people, abduct victims and vanish into nearby forests.
On Monday, armed men stormed a predominantly Muslim girls school in northwest Kebbi state and seized 25 students.
Also on Monday, another armed gang abducted 64 people, including women and children, from their homes in Zamfara state, which borders Kebbi.
On Tuesday, gunmen attacked the Christ Apostolic Church in central Kwara state, killing two people and abducting 38 worshippers, according to a church official.
The official said the gunmen had issued a ransom demand of 100 million naira (roughly AUD $107,000) per worshipper.
Security experts say such attacks and kidnappings are motivated by money, and schools are easy targets as they lack adequate security. Also, parents are more prepared to raise ransoms to bring back their children.
"There's just a lot of money to be made in this enterprise," said Ikemesit Effiong, senior partner at Lagos-based SBM Intelligence consultancy.
Amose Ibrahim was one of the parents who rushed to St. Mary's school after hearing news that dozens had escaped to check if any of his three children were free.
"Unfortunately, they were not among the escapees," Ibrahim, whose youngest child is six years old, told Reuters by phone. "As of now, many parents and their loved ones are roaming around the school."
This week's attacks prompted Nigerian President Bola Tinubu to cancel trips to South Africa and Angola, where he was due to attend a G20 summit and an African Union-European Union summit.
The government has also ordered the closure of 47 colleges in the north of Nigeria.
Nigeria faces scrutiny from US President Donald Trump who in early November threatened military action over the treatment of Christians in the country.
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