Nigeria: 50 students abducted from Catholic school managed to escape
According to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), gunmen on Friday abducted a total of 315 students and teachers at St. Mary's Catholic school in western Nigeria.
The early Nov. 21 raid on St Mary's co-education school in the state of Niger in western Nigeria came after gunmen on Nov. 17 stormed a secondary school in the neighboring state of Kebbi, abducting 25 girls. (Photo by John OKUNYOMIH / AFP)
Fifty of the more than 300 students abducted Friday from a Catholic school in Nigeria have escaped from their captors. The announcement was made Sunday by the Christian Association of Nigeria.
"We have received some good news as fifty pupils escaped and have reunited with their parents," the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said in a statement obtained by AFP. The organization said the escape took place between Friday and Saturday.
According to the CAN, gunmen on Friday abducted a total of 315 students and teachers at St. Mary's Catholic school in western Nigeria after carrying out a similar abduction earlier in the week at a high school in the northwestern state of Kebbi, where they abducted 25 girls.
The number of boys and girls abducted at St. Mary's, aged between 8 and 18, represents about half of the 629 students at the school.
The Nigerian government has made no statement on the number of students and teachers abducted.
Nigeria remains scarred by the 2014 abduction of nearly 300 girls by Boko Haram jihadists in Chibok in northeastern state of Borno. Some of those girls are still missing.
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