50 of the 303 schoolchildren abducted from a Catholic school in North-central Nigeria’s Niger state have escaped captivity and are now with their families, the school authority said on Sunday, November 23, as the pope called for the immediate release of those still missing.

The schoolchildren, aged between 10 and 18, escaped individually between Friday and Saturday, according to the Most Reverend Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Niger state and the proprietor of the school.

A total of 253 schoolchildren and 12 teachers are still being held by the kidnappers, Yohanna said in a statement. “We were able to ascertain this when we decided to contact and visit some parents,” he added.

Meanwhile, 38 worshippers kidnapped during a deadly church attack in central Nigeria’s Kwara state have regained their freedom, Kwara Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq said in a statement.

Gunmen had attacked the Christ Apostolic Church in Kwara’s Eruku town on Tuesday, killing two people and taking others hostage. Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, in a separate statement, attributed the freedom of the worshippers to “the efforts of security agencies” without giving further details.

Nigeria has been reeling from a spate of attacks in the past weeks, raising tension in the West African nation grappling with widespread insecurity.

Five officers were also killed in Nigeria’s Northeast region after gunmen ambushed a tactical team responding to a farmer-herder conflict, police said on Sunday. Two other police officers sustained injuries. The ambush occurred on Saturday in Sabon Sara village located in the Darazo area of Bauchi state, police spokesperson Ahmed Muhammed Wakil said in a statement.

Pope ‘deeply saddened’

The Niger state pupils and students were seized together with their teachers by gunmen who attacked the St. Mary’s School, a Catholic institution in Niger state’s remote Papiri community, on Friday.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the abductions and Nigerian authorities have not shared any update on rescue efforts. It was not immediately clear where the Niger state children were being held or how they managed to return home.

The Niger state school is located near a major road linking the towns of Yelwa and Mokwa, and is in a region of Nigeria where armed gangs often operate out of vast forests that connect different states and conflict hot spots.

“As much as we receive the return of these 50 children that escaped with some sigh of relief, I urge you all to continue in your prayers for the rescue and safe return of the remaining victims,” Yohanna said.

Pope Leo XIV called for the immediate release of the schoolchildren and staff of the school, saying at the end of a mass in St. Peter’s square on Sunday that he was “deeply saddened” by the incident.

“I feel great sorrow, especially for the many girls and boys who have been abducted and for their anguished families,” the pontiff said. “I make a heartfelt appeal for the immediate release of the hostages and urge the competent authorities to take appropriate and timely decisions to ensure their release.”

Kidnapping for ransom

School kidnappings have come to define insecurity in Africa’s most populous nation, and armed gangs often see schools as “strategic” targets to draw more attention. At least 1,500 students have been seized in Nigeria since the famous kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls more than a decade ago, and many of the children were released only after ransoms were paid.

The Niger state attack happened four days after 25 schoolchildren were seized in similar circumstances in neighboring Kebbi state’s Maga town, which is 170 kilometers away. Niger state hurriedly closed down all schools after Friday’s attack, while some federal colleges in conflict hot spots across the region were also closed by the Nigerian government.