Armed men simultaneously stormed three schools—a secondary school and two primary schools—in the Ahoro Esinele community of Oriire district, Oyo State, on Friday, May 16, seizing 39 students and seven teachers in what police described as a coordinated attack, according to Al-Jazeera. The youngest victims were toddlers of two years old; the oldest were 16.
Elisha Olukayode Ogundiya, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Oyo State, confirmed the abductions, identifying one of the targeted institutions as Baptist Nursery and Primary School in Yawota. The association said 46 people in total were taken from the three sites.
President Bola Tinubu condemned the raid as “barbaric,” pledging that federal and state authorities were working together to free the captives. “We expect a breakthrough soon,” his office said. But within days the news grew worse: Governor Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde confirmed that one abducted teacher had been killed, citing video evidence, while six suspects — alleged informants and logistics operatives for the kidnappers—were arrested.
A joint rescue effort by soldiers, police, and local vigilante units was halted after attackers planted improvised explosive devices along approach routes, wounding several members of the rescue team. Those injured are receiving treatment, the governor said.
A Diocese devastated: Wukari's months-long Calvary
More than a thousand kilometres to the northeast, Nigeria's Catholic Diocese of Wukari has been enduring a slower but no less devastating crisis. Vatican News explains that, speaking after the diocese’s third General Assembly, Bishop Mark Maigida Nzukwein laid out dramatic figures: since September 2025, armed attacks across southern Taraba State have killed more than 100 people, razed 217 churches outright, ransacked the homes of eight priests, and forced over 98,000 people—including 16 priests—to flee.
Among the churches destroyed is Saint James the Great Catholic Church, attacked in March. Just days before, on 4 March, a fire severely damaged the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the diocese's mother church. The violence has fallen hardest on the Chanchanji District of Takum Local Government Area, and on the Ussa and Donga communities.
Local Church leaders and residents attribute the attacks predominantly to armed Fulani herding gangs targeting Christian villages, many of them home to members of the Tiv ethnic group. According to diocesan reports, attackers systematically destroy homes, churches, and community structures before occupying the abandoned land—inflaming a generations-old dispute over territory between the Tiv and Jukun communities of Taraba State. The violence has crippled farming, the lifeblood of rural Taraba, raising the spectre of hunger across communities already shattered by displacement.
Earlier this year, clergy from the Dioceses of Wukari and Jalingo staged public protests demanding immediate government intervention to end the killings and kidnappings. At that point the reported toll stood at more than 80 dead, over 200 churches and communities destroyed, and over 90,000 Christians displaced. Nearly three months later, every figure has risen sharply.
