AFRICA/NIGERIA – “The students from the school in Papiri have suffered further trauma after their release, following recent attacks with 49 victims”

Abuja – Between December 28, 2025, and January 3, 2026, approximately 60 gang members killed at least 49 people in the region between Borgu Local Government Area in the State of Niger and the southern part of the Shanga Local Government Area in the State of Kebbi. This was reported by Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, Bishop of Kontagora, the diocese which was already severely affected on November 21 when 265 students from St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary School in the community of Papiri were kidnapped . Bishop Yohanna emphasizes that the children and young people who were freed in several stages have been traumatized once again by the latest attack from the gang members, who acted “without resistance from the security forces.” “The children of the Papiri school, who were only recently freed from captivity, are now even more traumatized,” says the Bishop of Kontagora, “because the new attacks have forced them to hide in the bush with their families day and night.”
As Bishop Yohanna reports in a statement sent to Fides, the first attack took place on December 28, when “heavily armed gang members on 30 motorcycles, each carrying two people, left their hiding places in the Borgu Reserve forest” to attack the village of Kaiwa, where they killed five people and looted and burned houses and barns. The gang then moved on towards the village of Gebe, where two more people were killed. The raids continued on January 1, with the gang members passing through the village of Shafaci and raiding the local police station, destroying its documents. The bandits then hid in the nearby bush, where they spent the night. On January 2, they raided the Catholic church in Sokonbora, destroying the cross, the Stations of the Cross paintings, and the musical instruments. They also stole two motorcycles, some cell phones, and cash from the parish. The criminals then occupied a residential complex in the nearby village of Kambari, where they spent the rest of the day eating the residents’ chickens and goats. From there, on January 3, they went to the village of Kusuwan Daji, 8 km from Sokonbora, where they raided the market. The criminals set fire to the shops and executed 42 men after tying their arms behind their backs. “The victims were both Christians and Muslims,” reports Bishop Yohanna, adding that the bandits abducted an unknown number of women and children. “The fire the bandits set was so intense that it could be seen from Papari, 15 kilometers away,” the bishop stated. Bishop Yohanna expresses his condolences to the victims of the attack on the Kusuwan Daji market and urges the local population of diverse ethnic backgrounds “not to see one another as enemies, but to unite against all forms of violence and to fight banditry together.”
Finally, the bishop makes an urgent appeal to the Nigerian authorities to bring the perpetrators of “this heinous crime” to justice and to guarantee the safety of all.

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