Police said on Tuesday that gunmen in the Nigerian state of Kwara have kidnapped 10 women and children in the latest armed gang seizure to rock Africa’s most populous country.Authorities said the Monday night seizure in the western state targeted the village of Isapa.Kwara state police commissioner Ojo Adekimi said the attackers were herders who had “shot sporadically” and seized women and children from local farming families.“There is a manhunt for them. Policemen are in the bush with local hunters,” he told the news agency AFP, before adding that one woman had managed to flee from the attackers as the onslaught took place.What’s the latest regarding the Catholic school kidnapping?The kidnapping comes as parents of dozens of children taken from a Catholic school last week pleaded for their release.In that incident, armed gangs seized more than 300 children from the Catholic school in Nigeria’s north-central Niger state.At least 50 victims taken from the school, St Mary’s, managed to escape, but more than 265 children and teachers are still being held.“My son is a small boy. He doesn’t even know how to talk,” said Michael Ibrahim.His son, who is four, suffers from asthma, he said.“We don’t know the condition in which the boy is,” said Ibrahim, adding the abduction had so sickened his wife that she had to be taken to hospital.Two other kidnappings occurred as 25 schoolgirls were taken from another school in the northwestern state of Kebbi, and 13 girls in the eastern state of Borno.Nigeria is facing a long-running crisis fueled by jihadist attacks and violence by “bandit” gangs.US President Donald Trump earlier this month suggested possible military action over what he described as the “mass slaughter” of Christians in Nigeria — a claim the Nigerian government has refuted.Nigeria is a country where long-brewing conflicts are commonplace, where both Christians and Muslims are vulnerable to killings, often indiscriminately.UN calls for urgent actionEarlier on Tuesday, the United Nations condemned the recent spate of mass kidnappings, calling on Nigerian authorities to take urgent steps to halt the onslaughts and bring perpetrators to justice.“We urge the Nigerian authorities — at all levels — to take all lawful measures to ensure such vile attacks are halted and to hold those responsible to account,” UN rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva, calling for “prompt, impartial and effective investigations.”Why are schools targeted by kidnappers?According to the Lagos-based SBM Intelligence consulting firm, at least 2.57 billion naira ($1.7 million, or €1.5 million) was paid to kidnappers between July 2024 and June 2025. Schools are often viewed by kidnappers as soft targets. In the last 10 years, criminal gangs and Islamist militants have abducted no fewer than 1,880 students across Nigeria, many of whom were released, but several did end up being killed.The West African country is still scarred by the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls in northeastern Chibok in 2014 by Boko Haram militants. Some of those girls taken, most of whom were between the ages of 16 and 18 at the time, are still missing.Since Boko Haram’s founding by Mohammed Yusuf in 2002, thousands of people have been killed in the terror group’s attacks on schools, security forces, government agencies and churches. Over two million people have been displaced due to the group’s activities throughout the region. The group has in the past aligned itself with the “Islamic State” (IS) terror group. The UN deems Boko Haram a terrorist organization.
