The kidnapping of over 300 students and teachers from a Catholic school by armed men in the Papiri area of central Nigeria is one of the worst mass abductions the country has ever witnessed. The horrifying incident on Friday is far from isolated: more than 2,500 students have been taken in at least 70 raids on schools in the last decade. The St Mary’s School attack came in the same week that gunmen killed a teacher and abducted 25 students from a girls’ secondary school in Nigeria’s Kebbi State.

More than 2,500 students have been taken in at least 70 raids on schools in the last decade

While no one has claimed responsibility for either attack, Nigeria is currently witnessing militant threats from a gamut of non-state actors, ranging from jihadist outfits, to ethnic militia, to independent criminals locally known as bandits. Abducting schoolchildren has been a tactic deployed by numerous armed groups over the past decade, prompting Nigeria to launch a Safe School Initiative (SSI) in 2014. But over a decade on since the launch, schools remain a target. In the wake of the most recent incident, the government’s response has been to close all schools in Niger state. It’s a quick fix which means that children miss out on their education – and it does little to address the........

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