Layers of challenges behind Nigeria school kidnapping
By Katie O'Malley | November 25, 2025
Nigeria (MNN) — For many at a Catholic school in northwest Nigeria, last Friday began a nightmare that hasn’t ended yet.
A few hours after midnight on November 21, gunmen abducted 303 students and 12 teachers from St. Mary’s Papiri Private Secondary School in Niger state.
Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says radical Islam may be a motive behind the kidnapping, “but there’s also a business side of it, as they’re holding people ransom in these parts of the world. We’re seeing more and more of those stories from the region.”
At least fifty students have since escaped. But as of Monday, no group had claimed the kidnapping. It occurred the same week that gunmen in a southern state kidnapped more than 20 schoolgirls.
Religious factors
For decades in Nigeria, there have been kidnappings and killings from radical Islamic groups such as Boko Haram or militant Fulani herdsmen. Friday’s kidnapping in Niger state calls back memories of the 2014 incident where Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok, Nigeria. Dozens of those young women are believed to still be in captivity today.
Although it’s complicated, there is a clear religious undertone to these security struggles.
“[In] northern Nigeria, there are so many different things going on,” says Kelley. “But what people need to understand is that more Christians are killed for their faith in Christ in northern Nigeria than the rest of the world combined.” (More on that here.)
Political clout
The government’s lackluster response to these events has caused deep frustration in the nation. Kelley explains that this comes from the roles held by the Fulani and Hausa. These majority-Muslim people groups number in the tens of millions.
“They have tremendous influence in the government and in business, and so the government is almost afraid to stand firmly against them, for fear of repercussions on an even greater scale,” says Kelley.
Complacent church
But there’s another reason that violence in the north is stuck on repeat.
“Yes, we want to see the government of Nigeria stand and get involved and hold people accountable and put people in prison. Absolutely,” says Kelley. “But this is an indictment on the 100 million Christians in the south of Nigeria that have not gotten fully involved and engaged in missions in their own country in the north. They’re more focused on themselves than they are the north. I have dear friends who are Nigerian who would say the same thing.”
It’s a hard truth, but it doesn’t have to stay this way. As we pray for freedom for the kidnapped students and staff, remember to ask God to raise up missionaries from the south full of the love of Jesus for the north.
“Until that day happens, these things [kidnappings and killings] can continue to happen because the perpetrators don’t know Christ,” says Kelley. “They need to hear the gospel message. Once the gospel gets into the north, these things will end. And nothing short of that is a solution.”
Header image is a representative stock photo from Lagos, Nigeria courtesy of Doug Linstedt via Unsplash.
Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/layers-of-challenges-behind-nigeria-school-kidnapping/