Unknown gunmen have abducted an unidentified number of students from a Catholic school in central Nigeria , the second mass abduction in the country in a week.

The latest kidnapping, in Papiri community in Niger state, came against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s threat to intervene militarily to end a “Christian genocide”, which the Nigerian government has denied is happening.

“The Niger state government has received with deep sadness the disturbing news of the kidnapping of pupils from St Mary’s School in Agwara local government area,” Abubakar Usman, the state government secretary, said in a statement.

Niger, the biggest of the country’s 36 states, runs west from the capital, Abuja, to neighbouring Benin. The incident in the early hours of Friday is the third documented mass schoo

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