“He Doesn’t Even Know How to Talk”: The Desperate Plea of Parents After Nigeria’s Mass School Abduction

The nightmare for parents in Nigeria’s Niger state is entering its fifth day. Their children, some as young as four, are still missing, held by armed gangs who stormed their school last week. For Michael Ibrahim, the anguish is compounded by the terrifying vulnerability of his son.

“My son is a small boy. He doesn’t even know how to talk,” Ibrahim said, his voice heavy with despair. His four-year-old also suffers from asthma, and the family has no idea what condition he is in. The stress of the abduction was so severe that Ibrahim’s wife had to be hospitalized.

This mass kidnapping from St. Mary’s Catholic school is a brutal resurgence of a tactic that has long haunted Africa’s most populous nation. Armed gangs, often called “bandits,” seized more than 300 children and teachers. While about 50 managed to escape, the fate of more than 265 others hangs in the balance.

A Nation Re-Traumatized

The abduction is a chilling echo of past tragedies, most infamously the 2014 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping by Islamist group Boko Haram, where about 90 girls are still missing over a decade later. This latest incident is part of a persistent security crisis fueled by both jihadist insurgencies and criminal gangs who raid villages and kidnap for ransom.

The same week St. Mary’s was targeted, 25 schoolgirls were taken from another school and 38 worshippers were seized from a church, painting a picture of a nation under siege from multiple armed groups.

“I need my child back. I need my child back. If I had the power to bring my child back, I would do it,” another father, Sunday Isaiku, told AFP, his plea a raw representation of the collective agony.

A Silent Captivity and a Plea to Government

Unlike many such incidents, no group has yet claimed responsibility for the St. Mary’s abduction or made a ransom demand, leaving families in an agonizing information vacuum.

With hope fading and time passing, community leaders are making direct appeals to the authorities. “At this moment, what we want is to get our 265 students and pupils back,” Reverend Bulus Yohanna of the Kontagora Catholic diocese stated. “Please help us… to see them back and reunite with their parents.”

For parents like Michael Ibrahim, the government is their only lifeline. “We don’t know any other way to bring these children if not through the government,” he said, appealing in his native Hausa language for all powers to be used.

According to global conflict monitor ACLED, this is one of 42 incidents targeting students in Nigeria this year. While the number has declined from 2024, it underscores a devastating normalcy where children in their classrooms are not safe. For the parents waiting, each passing hour is a lifetime, their hope tethered to a government they are begging to act.

{Source: IOL} 

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