Nigeria: another kidnapping of students in a Catholic school raises alarm bells

An undetermined number of students were abducted from a Catholic school in central Nigeria, a local official said Friday, in the second such incident in less than a week.

These kidnappings, in addition to an attack on a church earlier this week, come amid tensions between Nigeria and the U.S. over the plight of the Christian minority in Africa's most populous country.

This month, President Donald Trump, even threatened to intervene militarily in Nigeria over what he denounces as a campaign of Christian killings at the hands of jihadists, a narrative rejected from the African country.

"The exact number of students abducted is yet to be confirmed"

The latest abduction took place at St. Mary's School in the Agwara area of Niger state, local government secretary Abubakar Usman explained, according to the AFP news agency.

"The exact number of abducted students is yet to be confirmed," Usman said, adding that "security agencies continue to assess the situation."

Niger state police received information in the early hours of the morning that "some armed bandits stormed St. Mary's Private Secondary School" and "abducted a yet to be determined number of students from the dormitory."

This security body explained that they had deployed technical units and soldiers to search for the students.

Nigeria turns on the alerts

Nigeria this week put its security forces on alert in the face of U.S. pressure and recent incidents at a school and a church.

On Monday, a group of armed men abducted 25 female students from a secondary school in Kebbi state, in the country's northwest. One of them escaped, but the rest are still missing confirmed the AFP.

A day later, gunmen killed two people in a church in the west of the country during a mass that was being broadcast live. Dozens of parishioners who were at the site are believed to have been abducted.