Emergency Declared In Nigeria Over Mass Kidnappings

Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday declared a "nationwide security emergency" as the country scrambled to respond to a wave of mass kidnappings that have seen hundreds of people, mostly schoolchildren, captured in a week. 

"This is a national emergency, and we are responding by deploying more boots on the ground, especially in security-challenged areas," Tinubu said in a



statement.

Within days, assailants across the country kidnapped two dozen Muslim schoolgirls, 38 worshippers, more than 300 schoolchildren and teachers from a Catholic school, 13 young women and girls walking near a farm, and another 10 women and children. 

Dozens have been rescued and others escaped but 265 children and their teachers seized from a Catholic boarding school in the country's Niger state on Friday are still missing.