Some kidnapped from Catholic school in Nigeria were kept in cages

Ongoing attacks point to need for greater security. Local bishop appealing to government for more military camps.

Some members of the group kidnapped from St. Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger State, Nigeria, were kept in cages, a priest said in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need-USA.

Fr. Luka Joseph Jatau, director of the Justice and Peace Development Commission in the Diocese of Kontagora, Nigeria, spoke by phone with the pontifical foundation January 6, discussing details of the November 21 kidnapping of some 230 students and staff members from the school.

The large group had all been set free in time for Christmas.

Fr. Jatau said the captives from the Papiri school were taken to a game reserve in the region where bandits “have a very organized place.”

The group consisted mostly of children but also included 12 adult staff members from St. Mary’s School.

“The children were allowed to move around,” Fr. Jatau said. “They put them in a group here, a group there, and within one particular location, while the adults, they caged them.”

According to what he heard, none of the children were harmed. That news came as a relief to parents, but especially to one of the local parish catechists, who had earlier undergone a traumatic kidnapping experience.

“Some of our catechists also have been kidnapped, and their ordeal was quite serious. That’s why one of the catechists, he was very…,” Fr. Jatau said, pausing to think. “He was released after a few months. His child was involved in the school [kidnapping]. The man almost fainted because anytime he remembers what happened to him, he was thinking maybe the same thing would happen to the child. But to God be the glory, the children were not really mal-handled there. They were allowed to feel free. But the adults really were caged and tied up at all times.”

The priest reported that students’ recuperation was “not too difficult.”

“After seeing their parents, most of them recuperated very, very well,” he said. With the assistance of the state government, they were taken for a “total examination.” UNICEF Nigeria also gave workshops on how to assist the youngsters.

“We have not heard of any child who is traumatized, asking that he needs to go to hospital,” Fr. Jatau said. “They are all getting better but sometimes follow-up is important.”

Fresh attacks

Unfortunately, three days after Christmas, more attacks began, sending the children and their families into hiding in the bush country.

“The children of the Papiri school, who were only recently freed from captivity, are now even more traumatized,” Bishop Bulus Dauwa Yohanna of Kontagora told ACN International.

Part of the attacks included a raid on a Catholic church in Sokonbora January 2. Bandits destroyed the church’s cross, Stations of the Cross, and musical instruments. They stole motorcycles, cell phones and cash.

Fr. Jatau said the priest was an Irish member of the Society of African Missions.

The bandits were not able to get into his home, but they were asking “Where is Father? Where is the catechist?”

“So when we hear people talking like that, we know either that it’s an informant who is telling them who is Father, who is the catechist, things like that,” Fr. Jatau said. “Because ordinarily, bush people should not be able to know who is a priest and who is not.”

The following day, the bandits went to Kasuwan Daji village, where they raided the market, set fire to the shops, executed 42 men, and abducted an unknown number of women and children.

“The victims were both Christians and Muslims,” said Bishop Yohanna.

The attacks forced the evacuation of pastors and closure of local parishes and demonstrate the need for much stronger security, Fr. Jatau said. But security is very costly.

Bishop Yohanna is trying to see if the government can establish military camps in the area, “because that’s the only thing that can scare” the bandits, as they are not intimidated by local police, who are outnumbered by the bandits, or citizen vigilantes, whose shotguns are nothing compared to the bandits’ AK-47s.

“Unless we have the presence of serious military force, I don’t think that place will be safe in the near future,” Fr. Jatau said.

–John Burger