Schools in Nigeria closed following mass abductions | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast here. on YouTube, where we go behind the. headlines to look at a story and find. out more about it and why it matters. And in this episode, we're looking at. the closure of primary, secondary, and. higher education schools in the state of. Bouchi in Nigeria, where there are. concerns over rising insecurity because. of abductions. Well, is the latest state. to take action following recent. kidnappings, including those of more. than 300 children from a Roman Catholic.

school on Friday. Well, joining us now. is our Africa correspondent, Mayani. Jones, who's in Mina in Nigeria. So, Mayani, remind us what happened at this. school on Friday. >> So, in the early hours of Friday, armed. men stormed the grounds of the St. Mary's Catholic School in a village. called Papiri. It's in Niger. It's about. 9 hours drive from Mina, the state. capital where we are now. Uh they took. 315 students with them according to the. school authorities. Uh and since then.

the Christian Association of Nigeria has. said that 50 of those students were able. to escape. Now that's something that's. been called into question by the. authorities. They say they're not aware. of those 50 students. But I think it's. worth mentioning uh for the audience. that this is a village that is. incredibly remote. It takes 9 hours to. drive from the nearest biggest town. The. roads are terrible. you have to take a. ferry to get there. So, the fact that. it's so remote might explain why some of. the details of what happened on Friday. aren't that clear. >> And what about the others?

>> So, the others are still missing an. estimated 265 students. The authorities. say that they're throwing absolutely. everything at this. Uh they've got the. armed forces combing the surrounding. forests around the school. Um, President. Bulamemed Tinubu, the Nigerian. president, has recalled 100,000 police. officers who are currently working with. VIPs, very important people as security. He's called them back saying that they. now need to work on their core police. duties. So, ensuring security across the. country. He's also asked for 30,000 new.

police officers to be recruited. So the. authorities really keen to make sure. that these kids are brought back and. that's because mass kidnappings of. children of this type really have a. tendency to dominate headlines and put a. lot of pressure on the government to. sort out the security situation here. >> Well, yes, this isn't an isolated. incident, is it? >> No, not at all. Uh just a few days. before this uh abduction at this. Catholic school, 20 school girls were.

taken from uh their boarding school in. the northwestern state of Kebby. One of. their one of the staff members was. unfortunately killed in that instance. We believe those girls were Muslim. Um. and uh a week prior to that um ma people. celebrating mass or just a few days. prior to that, people celebrating mass. uh in the state of Quirre, 38 people. there were taken and were released. this. past Sunday. So, there's been a renewed. wave of these. They kind of tend to kind. of come and go. The last mass kidnapping.

of this type that we've seen before this. period was over a year ago in March of. 2024. So, they seem to kind of come in. these clusters and then they go away for. a bit and then they come back. >> So, Mayani, what do we know of those. behind these abductions and kidnappings? Well, at the moment, nobody's claimed. responsibility for this latest set of. kidnapping. The area that we're in, northwestern North Central Nigeria, uh. when these kidnappings happen, they tend. to be carried out by armed groups.

They're known locally as bandits. And. the reason they target schools and big. groups of students is because they know. that it's it's very emotive that parents. who put pressure on the authorities to. get the kids back that they have a. higher chance of getting ransom. But it. is worth saying that in the northeast of. the country there is a lot more. kidnapping by Islamist insurgent groups. like Boo Haram which kidnapped the. Chipot girls in 2014. So in this. instance it's not clear if the group. that took those 300 students from St. Mary's school is affiliated with Bokoh.

Haram or is or Alqaaida in any way or if. they're just guys that kidnapped the. students hoping to get paid a hefty. ransom. >> And we are getting international. reaction to this aren't we? Absolutely. The US has condemned the. abduction of the 300 students. They've. said that uh the Nigerian authorities. must do everything in their power to get. them back. They've called for those. responsible um to be brought to justice. and to be detained. Um and Pope Leo over.

the weekend also issued a statement uh. calling for the release of the students. uh and urging the Nigerian authorities. to do everything that they can to get. them released. Um so these stories do. really because of the the precedent set. by the chipok girls and how that became. a global campaign centered around the. abduction of of school girls being. stopped from you know continuing their. education. Uh these abductions do still. have a way of galvanizing international. attention around the problem of. insecurity in Nigeria which has going. been going on for well over a decade.

>> And what's it like there? Do you really. feel a sense of terror amongst children. and indeed parents because this is. everybody's worst nightmare? >> Absolutely. I've been covering these. mass kidnappings since I've been a. foreign correspondent. So for going on. 80 years now and every single time when. one of these happen, you get a real. sense of fear from parents and a real. dilemma for them because everybody wants. their kids to get an education. Everybody wants them to be able to get. on in life. But if the place where.

they're getting that education is going. to be the place where they could. potentially be in danger, what do you. do? You find yourself in a very tricky. situation. And we're finding once again. that the people who are suffering from. this are young children and young people. across northern Nigeria. A lot of states. now coming forward urging schools to. close down until security is restored. Nobody knows when that will be. And in. the meantime, the education of all these. kids is going to be disrupted. >> And have you talked to any of the. parents or children? I mean, what are. people saying to you?

So a BC team on the ground managed to. make it to Papiri after several days of. traveling. It was very intense and they. managed to speak to parents there. Those. parents didn't want to be identified. There's often worries around. repercussions in the community. Um that. the criminals might come back and target. parents who spoken to the media, but. they did say that they were incredibly. distraught. One mother said that her. only son had been taken, that it was her. first child, um and she was begging the. authorities to get them back. Um there. was a real sense of kind of despair from.

the parents, confusion, uh wanting more. information, wanting to know when their. kids are going to be returned. Um but. the town of Papiri very difficult to. reach and and a lot of the parents. finding it very frustrating to get clear. information as to exactly what is. happening. >> May thank you so much. >> And you can hear more about this story. and others on the Global News podcast. Get it wherever you get your podcasts. And if you enjoyed this episode and. found it insightful, please give us a.

like and subscribe to us here on. YouTube. And if there are other stories. you'd like us to cover, tell us in the. comments below. But that's it from this. edition of the Global News podcast here. on YouTube.