By Editorial Staff 
Like the 2014 Chibok school mass abduction, the kidnap of over 300 students from a Catholic school in Niger State has gained international attention, as Pope Leo, during his weekly Angelus address on Sunday, called on the Bola Tinubu-led Nigeria’s government to “take appropriate and timely decisions to ensure their release.”
“I feel great pain, especially for the many young men and women who have been abducted and for their anguished families,” the Pope said.
Only 50 out of the 303 students of St. Mary’s Private Catholic School in Niger State have regained freedom after escaping from their captors, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). Twelve teachers were also abducted.
Friday’s abduction has compelled states across much of the North to close schools as an extreme measure to prevent further kidnappings. Niger, Katsina, Taraba and others have announced closures of public schools, while the Federal Government has also directed the closure of Federal Unity Colleges in the affected states.
The terrorists and other criminal gangs are not limiting their attacks to schools; they are also attacking worship centres, including churches and mosques across the northern states. Worshippers and a pastor kidnapped earlier in the week at a CAC church are still being held, with the abductors reportedly demanding a ₦3 billion ransom for their release.
The whereabouts of over 20 students kidnapped from a boarding school in Kebbi State also remain unknown.
Nigeria’s unending state of insecurity – ranging from mass abductions and attacks on worship gatherings to herder–farmer clashes – recently prompted the U.S. President to describe the country as “disgraced.”
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