Is Nigeria’s security situation worsening, or is there progress?

A spokesman for the Nigerian government said the “remaining” students taken from a Catholic school had been freed, but the local diocese said that only a “second batch” had been released.

Month-long ordeal ends but no details released on how they regained their freedom or who was behind abduction A final group of 130 kidnapped Nigerian schoolchildren freed by the government on Sunday are expected to be reunited with their families in the central Niger state on Monday, ending a month-long ordeal that drew global concern. Last month, unknown gunmen took an estimated 215 schoolchildren and 12 teachers from St Mary’s Catholic school, Papiri community in Niger state, which runs west from the capital, Abuja, to neighbouring Benin. Continue reading...

Month-long ordeal ends but no details released on how they regained their freedom or who was behind abduction A final group of 130 kidnapped Nigerian schoolchildren freed by the government on Sunday are expected to be reunited with their families in the central Niger state on Monday, ending a month-long ordeal that drew global concern. Last month, unknown gunmen took an estimated 215 schoolchildren and 12 teachers from St Mary’s Catholic school, Papiri community in Niger state, which runs west from the capital, Abuja, to neighbouring Benin. Continue reading...

Month-long ordeal ends but no details released on how they regained their freedom or who was behind abduction A final group of 130 kidnapped Nigerian schoolchildren freed by the government on Sunday are expected to be reunited with their families in the central Niger state on Monday, ending a month-long ordeal that drew global concern. Last month, unknown gunmen took an estimated 215 schoolchildren and 12 teachers from St Mary’s Catholic school, Papiri community in Niger state, which runs west from the capital, Abuja, to neighbouring Benin. Continue reading...

Presidential spokesperson says all those abducted from a Catholic school in Niger state last month are now free Nigerian authorities say they have secured the release of a further 130 schoolchildren kidnapped from a Catholic school in November, after 100 were freed earlier this month . “Another 130 abducted Niger state pupils released, none left in captivity,” presidential spokesperson Sunday Dare said on X, in a post accompanied by a photo of smiling children. Continue reading...

Presidential spokesperson says all those abducted from a Catholic school in Niger state last month are now free Nigerian authorities say they have secured the release of a further 130 schoolchildren kidnapped from a Catholic school in November, after 100 were freed earlier this month . “Another 130 abducted Niger state pupils released, none left in captivity,” presidential spokesperson Sunday Dare said on X, in a post accompanied by a photo of smiling children. Continue reading...

The abduction of over 260 children from a Catholic school last month was the latest in a recent spate of kidnappings in the country.

The president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, said all 24 of the girls kidnapped last week had been rescued All 24 schoolgirls held by assailants after a mass abduction last week from a school in north-western Nigeria have been rescued, the country’s president announced on Tuesday. A total of 25 girls were abducted on 17 November from the Government Girls Comprehensive secondary school in Kebbi state’s Maga town, but one of them was able to escape the same day, the school’s principal said. The remaining 24 were all saved, according to a statement from the Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, though no details were released about the rescue. Continue reading...

The president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, said all 24 of the girls kidnapped last week had been rescued All 24 schoolgirls held by assailants after a mass abduction last week from a school in north-western Nigeria have been rescued, the country’s president announced on Tuesday. A total of 25 girls were abducted on 17 November from the Government Girls Comprehensive secondary school in Kebbi state’s Maga town, but one of them was able to escape the same day, the school’s principal said. The remaining 24 were all saved, according to a statement from the Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, though no details were released about the rescue. Continue reading...

More than 200 people have been killed in attacks, but the abducted Christians have been freed.

Nigerian government yet to confirm that 166 villagers and churchgoers who were kidnapped last month are now back home.

Armed men burn homes, shops in Woro, a remote village in north-central Kwara State bordering Niger State, authorities say.

They were among 177 people seized last month from three churches in northern Kaduna state.

Armed attackers abducted over 170 people from three churches in northern Nigeria.

The head of a Christian church alliance says 172 people were kidnapped by armed men, and that nine later escaped.

The victims, including women and children, were ambushed on their way to a religious festival.

A group of 130 Nigerian schoolchildren abducted last month were freed, ending a mass abduction that drew global concern.

The country has seen a wave of recent mass abductions, as it suffers from multiple interlinked security concerns.

At least 153 students and 12 teachers taken from a Catholic school last month remain in captivity.

Parents in rural Nigeria still have no idea what has happened to their children weeks after kidnappers abducted 300.

First, the jihadists sent a letter saying they were coming to the village to preach, said Nigerian chief Umar Bio Salihu. When no one attended, they went on a rampage, killing people and torching houses, he said. Salihu is the traditional chief of Woro, a small, Muslim-majority village in west-central Nigeria where alleged jihadist gunmen are reported to have perpetrated a massacre late Tuesday. Details were still emerging from the attack, but it was one of the country’s deadliest in recent...

The last 89 Christians held captive since criminal gangs attacked three churches in northern Nigeria in mid-January were released on Thursday, according to local officials and an Agence France-Presse journalist. The worshippers, dressed in yellow, arrived on a bus escorted by security forces and were received by the governor of Kaduna state, Uba Sani, who said 183 people were initially abducted. They were snatched from three churches during Sunday services on January 18 in the latest in a wave...

Nigeria’s military announced Wednesday that 62 hostages were rescued, and two militants were killed in a pair of operations against armed groups, a report said. The development comes after more than 160 worshippers were kidnapped from two churches in Nigeria Sunday by gangs. It's unclear if any of the worshippers were among the hostages rescued. Lt. Col. Olaniyi Osoba, an Army spokesperson, told Reuters that Nigerian forces raided a location in the northwestern Zamfara state after receiving tips that captives were being held there. The 62 rescued hostages are now in safe custody and are in the process of being reunited with their families, Reuters reported, citing the army. GUNMEN ABDUCT DOZENS OF WORSHIPPERS FROM MULTIPLE NIGERIAN CHURCHES In a separate operation, Nigerian soldiers ambushed militants in the border area between the Kebbi and Sokoto states, Osoba added. Sunday’s church kidnapping incident , which the BBC said targeted both Christians and Muslims, marks the latest mass kidnapping in Nigeria’s long-running streak of religiously fueled attacks. Nigeria has experienced a dramatic surge in mass attacks by armed gangs, particularly Islamist militants, who often operate from forest enclaves and target villages, schools and places of worship. NIGERIA NAMED EPICENTER OF GLOBAL KILLINGS OF CHRISTIANS OVER FAITH IN 2025, REPORT SAYS Muslim Fulani militants frequently carry out violence in northern and central parts of Nigeria to bankrupt Christian communities while receiving ransom payments. Kaduna state police said gunmen armed with "sophisticated weapons" attacked two churches in the village of Kurmin Wali in Afogo ward at about 11:25 a.m. on Sunday, Reuters reported. While Kaduna state police on Monday reportedly cited conservative figures, saying dozens were being held captive as the investigation remains in its early stages, a senior church leader noted that more than 160 worshippers were abducted by gunmen over the weekend. Fox News Digital’s Bonny Chu and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: The spate of kidnappings of Christians in north-central Nigeria by mostly Muslim Fulani militants is a deliberate tactic to target, bankrupt and destroy Christian communities , according to multiple sources who spoke to Fox News Digital. "Kidnapping for ransom is a strategic aim of the Fulani militants," Steven Kerfas, lead researcher for the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA), told Fox News Digital. "They do it to fund their terrorism, but also to bankrupt the Christian community." In Nigeria’s Middle Belt states, "these mass abductions are targeted," Kerfas said. "You have cases where 100 Christians will be marched into the forest and kept there for months. You know, they are forced to cough out ransoms they don't have, so they have to sell everything – [including] their farmland." ALL 24 KIDNAPPED NIGERIAN SCHOOLGIRLS RESCUED AFTER ARMED ATTACK IN KEBBI, PRESIDENT SAYS He continued, "They survive through this subsistence agriculture. Now you force them to sell the farmland that they are surviving on to pay ransom. So by the time you release them, what do they go back to? Nothing." Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors UK, a global Christian charity supporting Christians persecuted for their faith, told Fox News Digital, "The kidnapping for ransom epidemic in north-central Nigeria doesn’t just affect Christians, but it’s clear that they are disproportionately singled out." In Nigeria, Open Doors states that 4,407 Christians were abducted in the north-central region between 2020 and 2025. When adjusted for relative population size, a Christian was 2.4 times more likely than a Muslim to be abducted, the organization claims. Blyth said, "Tactics by kidnappers include raids on churches and schools… priests and pastors are singled out because they represent high-value targets. Families and friends are often forced to sell land, livestock and property to meet the kidnappers’ demands, and it can bankrupt families for generations.". Blythe warned of the "horrific dilemma" Christians face: "Pay ransoms in the hope of saving lives, (knowing) that payment allows the attacks to continue, or refuse and risk their loved ones being slaughtered – sometimes families and communities pay the ransom, but it doesn’t lead to the kidnapped person being released alive." International Christian Concern reported that a pastor who had been kidnapped in August of last year in north-central Nigeria, the Rev. James Audu Issa, was held for several weeks, and then killed – even though a ransom had been paid. "In the (Nigerian) Middle Belt, they kidnap Christians , they kidnap the clergy, they abduct women. They hardly kidnap any Muslims," Nigerian lawyer Jabez Musa told Fox News Digital. Musa is a pseudonym, used to protect the lawyer’s identity. TRUMP TARGETS ISIS IN NIGERIA AMID WARNINGS SAHEL REGION IS BECOMING ‘EPICENTER OF TERRORISM’ He said, "The reason for these ransom demands is to economically weaken Christians. That is the way Christians look at it." The lawyer added that, in April this past year one church, the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), said they had to pay 300 million naira ($205,000) in ransom to kidnappers, for about 50 of their members who were kidnapped in Kaduna State and Plateau State. Payments such as these place an unbearable financial strain on the church and affected families." Kerfas added, "The Fulani militants are on a jihad, and, of course, they need to fund that jihad. So the Christians being abducted have to cough out huge sums as ransoms." Christian communities are in the majority in Nigeria’s Middle Belt. But the claimed goal of the Fulani militants of wiping out the Christian communities through kidnapping makes their future desperate and bleak. Kerfas warned, "If you don't pay ransom, you get killed. And sometimes, even after paying the ransom, you still get killed." Fox News Digital reached out to the Nigerian government but did not receive a response.

The government of Nigeria has secured the release of the 100 schoolchildren who were abducted last month, according to local media. The children were taken from St. Mary's School in Papiri, Niger state, on Nov. 21. The release was announced by local broadcaster Channels Television on Sunday. The news comes as Christians continue to face persecution in Nigeria, which has led President Donald Trump to declare the West African nation a "country of particular concern." In November, the BBC reported that as many as 303 children were kidnapped from the school, citing the superior general of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles (OLA), Mary Barron. TRUMP ADMINISTRATION EXPANDS EFFORTS TO STOP CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE IN NIGERIA WITH AID THREAT The nun said the students were "tiny," and as young as 6 years old. According to Barron, 50 of the students escaped over that weekend. "They said they walked and walked, because they knew they couldn't walk back to the school, so they just kept walking until they found something familiar," she said. ALL 24 KIDNAPPED NIGERIAN SCHOOLGIRLS RESCUED AFTER ARMED ATTACK IN KEBBI, PRESIDENT SAYS Two hundred fifty-three students and 12 teachers are currently in captivity. It is unclear how many will be held after the release goes through. Soon after the kidnappings, Trump told Fox News Radio that the Nigerian government had "done nothing" to stop the killings. "I’m really angry about it," he said on Nov. 23. "What’s happening in Nigeria is a disgrace." At the time, War Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Nigerian national security advisor Nuhu Ribadu and discussed cutting off aid to Nigeria if it "continues to allow the killing of Christians." "Hegseth emphasized the need for Nigeria to demonstrate commitment and take both urgent and enduring action to stop violence against Christians and conveyed the Department’s desire to work by, with, and through Nigeria to deter and degrade terrorists that threaten the United States," the Pentagon said in a statement. Reuters and Fox News Digital's Rachel Wolf, Stephen Sorace and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.