POPE Leo XIV on Sunday demanded the immediate release of more than 300 students and teachers kidnapped in Nigeria, along with six Catholic priests abducted in Cameroon, as mass kidnappings continue to plague the region.
Some 315 students and teachers were seized on Friday from St Mary High School in Nigeria’s Niger state in the latest attack by armed groups targeting civilians. Separately, six Catholic priests were kidnapped from the Archdiocese of Bamenda in Cameroon, along with a Baptist pastor in the same area.
Speaking to crowds gathered in St Peter’s Square, the pontiff said he had “learned with immense sadness the news of the kidnappings of priests, faithful, and students.”
“I feel deep sorrow, especially for the many abducted boys and girls and their anguished families,” Pope Leo XIV said.
He urged “the competent authorities to take appropriate and timely decisions to secure their liberation” and called on worshippers to pray that churches and schools “may always and everywhere remain places of safety and hope.”
The Christian Association of Nigeria reported that approximately 50 children from the Catholic school have escaped and been reunited with their families since Friday’s raid.
The abductions come amid escalating tensions over religious violence in the region. US President Donald Trump recently threatened military action over what he described as the persecution of Christians by radical Islamists in Nigeria.
