LAGOS: A Catholic diocese in Nigeria’s north-central region Thursday said that all schoolchildren and teachers taken by gunmen from their school in November have been “accounted for” and “reunited” with their families.
The clarification comes after some 35 students were initially thought to be unaccounted for after the government ended rescue efforts.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had said in November that 315 students and staff were kidnapped from St. Mary’s co-educational boarding school in Papiri, Niger State.
Some 50 escaped immediately afterwards, and on December 7 the government secured the release of around 100.
The Nigerian government announced the release of 130 more students on December 21, with a presidential spokesman saying: “None Left in Captivity.”
With the government seemingly ending rescue efforts, the disparity between the figures provided by CAN, school authorities, and rescued teachers and staff generated controversy.
In addition, US President Donald Trump alleged that there were mass killings of Christians amounting to a “genocide” and threatened military intervention.
However, the Catholic Church said on Thursday that about 35 students who either escaped or had not been abducted in the first place did not show up for a headcount immediately after the kidnapping.
“Immediately after the incident, a headcount was conducted, and a total of three hundred and fifteen (315) persons were initially unaccounted for,” Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, the bishop of Kontagora, said in a statement.
“By Sunday, 23 November 2025, it was confirmed that fifty (50) of those earlier listed as unaccounted for had escaped and been reunited with their parents, thereby reducing the number to two hundred and sixty five (265) persons still unaccounted for.”
According to Yohanna, the 35 students later showed up during a second round of headcounts. He said some of the students fled into nearby bushes and did not return to the school before the initial headcount was taken, while some parents did not present their children for verification.
The accounting may have been complicated by the children’s homes being scattered across swathes of rural settlements, sometimes requiring three or four hours of travel by motorbike to reach their remote villages, a United Nations source told AFP.
Yohanna insisted that the “discrepancies were not in any way intended to mislead the public or cause unnecessary panic.”
“They resulted from genuine difficulties encountered in a rapidly evolving, highly sensitive, and emotionally charged situation,” he said.