VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV called Sunday for the release of over 300 hostages taken from a Catholic school in one of the largest mass kidnappings in Nigeria.
“I learned with immense sadness the news of the kidnappings of priests, faithful, and students in Nigeria,” he said.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) on Saturday said gunmen had kidnapped more than 300 students and teachers in raids on two schools in the country.
“I make a heartfelt appeal for the immediate release of the hostages,” Leo said, expressing his “deep sorrow, especially for the many young boys and girls kidnapped and for their anguished families.”
“Let us pray for these brothers and sisters of ours and that churches and schools may always and everywhere remain places of safety and hope,” he said at the end of the Angelus prayer.
Gunmen on Monday stormed a secondary school in Kebbi state, abducting 25 girls. That was followed by an early Friday raid on St. Mary’s co-education school in Niger state.
The two abduction operations and an attack on a church in the west of the country, in which two people were killed and dozens abducted, came as US President Donald Trump threatened military action over what he called the persecution of Christians by radical Islamists in Nigeria.
Nigeria is still scarred by the kidnapping of nearly 300 girls by Boko Haram jihadists at Chibok in northeastern Borno state more than a decade ago. Some of those girls are still missing.
Pope urges release of 315 seized in Nigerian mass school kidnapping
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Pope urges release of 315 seized in Nigerian mass school kidnapping
- Gunmen on Monday stormed a secondary school in Kebbi state, abducting 25 girls
Brazil’s Lula accuses Trump of seeking to forge ‘new UN’
- Lula defended multilateralism against what he called “the law of the jungle” in global affairs
- Key US allies including France and Britain have also expressed doubts
BRASILIA: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva accused Donald Trump on Friday of trying to create “a new UN” with his proposed “Board of Peace.”
The veteran leftist joins other world leaders who have avoided signing up for Trump’s new global conflict resolution organization, where a permanent seat costs $1 billion and the chairman is Trump himself.
“Instead of fixing” the United Nations, “what’s happening? President Trump is proposing to create a new UN where only he is the owner,” Lula said.
Trump unveiled his “Board of Peace” at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos Thursday, joined on stage by leaders and officials from 19 countries to sign its founding charter.
Lula defended multilateralism against what he called “the law of the jungle” in global affairs.
His remarks come a day after he spoke by phone with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who urged his counterpart to safeguard the “central role” of the United Nations in international affairs.
In his remarks on Friday, Lula said “the UN charter is being torn.”
Although originally intended to oversee Gaza’s rebuilding, the board’s charter does not seem to limit its role to the Palestinian territory and appears to want to rival the United Nations.
Key US allies including France and Britain have also expressed doubts.
London balked at the inclusion of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces are fighting in Ukraine after invading in 2022.
France said the charter as it currently stood was “incompatible” with its international commitments, especially its UN membership.
