Nigeria Suffers Horrific Abduction of Schoolchildren as Ransom Business Thrives

Since 2014, thousands of abductions have occurred, targeting school children and young girls (Michael Fleshman).

Over 300 Nigerians were kidnapped in a mass abduction on November 21, 2025, as the west African state increasingly falls prey to criminal activity and insecurity.  

Armed gang members abducted 303 students and 12 teachers from a Catholic boarding school in Papiri, Nigeria in one of the worst abductions in Nigerian history. School officials had ignored requests by authorities to close down all schools in anticipation of an attack. 

This is not the first time that a mass abduction has occurred in Nigeria. The Boko Haram Islamist terrorist group infamously abducted 276 schoolgirls in 2014. Since then, abductions have become increasingly frequent, with almost 5,000 people abducted in 997 separate incidents from 2024 to 2025. Over 40 percent of abductions, accounting for 60 percent of victims, occurred in the northwest, which hosts over 30,000 bandits and 100 gangs. As a result of persisting kidnappings, over 68 percent of Nigerians have low confidence in security. 

Abductions are part of a new criminal business model—ransoms. Since 2024, criminal gangs have demanded over 47 billion naira, receiving 2.57 billion, or $1.66 million (USD), largely from government officials. The business runs like clockwork: after 20 to 30 phone calls negotiating payment over 50 days, the terrorists release the victim. These ransoms serve as valuable revenue streams for gangs, rebels, and Islamist terrorist groups. Additionally, criminal groups will force kidnapping victims to work on their farms or in mines to further capitalize off them economically.  

Ikemesit Effiong, a partner at SBM Intelligence Firm in Nigeria, told The Caravel, “Payments signal a low cost-high reward paradigm for attackers, encouraging copycat attacks and mass kidnappings, with schools an especially attractive target because of publicity and pressure to pay.”

The Nigerian government outlawed paying ransoms in 2022 in an effort to stop the ransom business. However, ransoms continue to be paid in secret. For many families, there is no other option but to negotiate with the kidnappers to get their children back. 

Effiong said, “For affected families and communities, they are forced to deal with the most gut wrenching of moral hazards — obey the law and disincentivise future kidnappers or do everything they can to secure the release of their loved ones.”

Inaction normalizes mass kidnappings, heightening insecurity and inhibiting economic growth, according to Effiong. Local businesses suffer higher costs to pay for extra security and insurance. Foreign businesses are hesitant to invest altogether. Meanwhile, food prices are soaring as farmers abandon fields and pay tribute fees to neighboring criminal gangs. Money that could go towards consumption and production ultimately goes to warding off criminal groups and paying for ransoms. 

Effiong advised, “In the short term, the government can harden soft targets, such as schools and churches, with physical security, rapid-response teams and community early-warning networks […] it can establish and enforce a strict anti-ransom regime while simultaneously offering credible protection for families who refuse to pay (for example, by setting up hotlines and offering relocation and compensation support). […] Longer term, the government has to restore state presence in rural areas: community policing, justice remediation, livelihoods and conflict-resolution mechanisms to remove the permissive operating environment for bandits.”

The abductions have caught international attention for their possible religious motives. The most recent abduction targeted a Catholic school, and groups previously attacked churches. Pope Leo has spoken out, urging authorities to find the victims as soon as possible. With over 17 Catholic priests missing, the United States has threatened to intervene in what it views to be a purposeful religious persecution. 

However, these abductions are likely not religiously-motivated. Attacks have been largely by mercenary groups, not Boko Haram (in the northeast, a different part of the state). Experts at the Council for Foreign Relations believe attacks grew out of skirmishes between farmers for land or water as a larger scarcity issue persists in the region. 

Effiong agreed that these attacks were not religiously-motivated, saying, “The motive for the latest wave largely skews economic. […] This development is also opportunistic criminality built on weak state presence. Perpetrators exploit remote, under-policed rural terrain and porous security to run extortion rackets rather than pursue a coherent political or religious agenda. High-volume school and community kidnappings fit a profit-driven model. Local grievances and diffuse drivers can matter in specific places, for example, with farmer–herder tensions and in criminalised mining areas, but the recent mass school abductions resemble commercial banditry, not an ideologically-driven insurgency.”  

As of now, 50 students have escaped and reunited with their families. Authorities continue searching for the rest.