The families of Papiri had long called for security forces to protect their children at the school in northern Nigeria where more than 300 pupils were kidnapped by gunmen last week, in one of the country's worst mass abductions.

Nigerian Catholic bishops on Tuesday issued an urgent and collective call to arms to the Nigerian government to protect the lives and property of all citizens and immediately stop the decimation of Christian communities and the abduction of hundreds of young girls and teachers.

Fifty of the 303 schoolchildren abducted from a Catholic school in north-central Nigeria’s Niger state have escaped captivity and are now with their families, the school authority said Sunday, bringing relief to some distraught families after one of the largest school abductions in Nigeria’s history.

Nicki Minaj responded to the mass kidnapping of 303 children and 12 teachers from St. Mary's School in Nigeria with prayer for hostages' safe return.

American forces most likely would have to be drawn from other parts of the world for any military intervention in Nigeria.

Africa’s most populous nation was already facing one of the world’s biggest hunger crises. It’s getting much worse.