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30-04-2026
ABUJA: Eight children are still missing after gunmen raided an unregistered orphanage in Nigeria’s north-central Kogi State and kidnapped 23, authorities have said.
Kogi’s information commissioner Kingsley Fanwo said 15 children were rescued due to the “prompt and coordinated response” of security agencies.
Sunday’s attack also saw the owner of the facility taken, he added.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but security sources say the state has a functional Boko Haram cell and that there have been several violent attacks in the area.
Nigeria is also grappling with a kidnap crisis in many parts of the country, with criminal gangs abducting people for ransoms. The government has made paying ransoms illegal but this has not prevented the kidnappings.
“The government remains fully committed to ensuring the rescue of all the victims,” Fanwo said.
His statement on Monday also highlighted that the orphanage was “operating illegally” in a “bushy environment” without the knowledge of relevant authorities.
Fanwo urged operators of orphanages, schools, and similar institutions to always engage appropriately with the appropriate government agencies “especially in the current security climate”.
Mass kidnappings in schools are not uncommon in Nigeria, especially in the country’s northern region which is currently plagued by insecurity. This is the first time an orphanage has been targeted.
In November 2025, many of the parents whose children were abducted 10 days ago from a boarding school in Nigeria are terrified, they do not want to talk to the authorities or journalists in case of reprisals from the kidnappers.
“If they hear you say anything about them, before you know it they’ll come for you. They’ll come to your house and take you into the bush,” one of them told media. For his safety, the media is not identifying him and is calling him Aliyu.
His young son is one of more 300 students abducted when armed men stormed the grounds of St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri village in the central state of Niger in the early hours of 21 November.
Some of the children taken are as young as five years old. About 250 are still reportedly missing, though state officials have said this number is exaggerated.
The incident is part of a recent wave of mass abductions in north and central Nigeria some of which have been blamed on criminal gangs, known locally as “bandits”, who see kidnapping for ransom as a quick and easy way to make money.
“Our village is remote, we are close to the bandits,” explained Aliyu, whose son is still among the missing.
“It’s a three-hour drive to where they hide. We know where they are, but we can’t go there ourselves, it’s too dangerous.”
He is desperate with worry, especially as vulnerable captives kept in forest hideouts have died during previous abductions, whether from sickness or because ransoms have not been paid.
“I feel so bitter and my wife hasn’t eaten for days… We’re not happy at all. We need someone to help us to take action.”
Two days after the Papiri kidnapping, 12 teenage girls were abducted from Mussa District in the north-eastern Borno state, long the flashphoint of a jihadist insurgency in the region. The Nigerian army says the girls were seized by the Islamic State of West Africa (Iswap) group while harvesting crops on their family farmlands, and were subsequently rescued following an “intelligence-led” operation. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
