A DONEGAL NUN who is the superior general of the missionary that manages the Catholic school in Nigeria where over 300 children were kidnapped has said she is “anguished” by the incident.

On Friday, gunmen raided St Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in Papiri, Niger State, Nigeria.

St Mary’s is under the direction and management of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles (OLA), of which Donegal nun Sr Barron is Congregational Leader.

Shortly after 2am on Friday morning, armed individuals entered the school grounds and forced their way into the dormitories.

Some 303 children and 12 teachers were abducted in what was one of the largest mass kidnappings in Nigeria.

The number of boys and girls – aged between eight and 18 years – kidnapped from St Mary’s is almost half of the school’s student population of over 600.

However, at least 50 have managed to escape and have returned to their families.

Speaking to RTÉ, Sr Barron remarked: “I am the leader of our congregation in the world and I feel anguished and powerless to do anything.

“I can’t imagine the pain that the parents of those children in particular are feeling. Or the children whose parents have been taken, the adults who have been taken.”

She said a “large group of armed bandits arrived on motorbikes and with vans and went from dormitory to dormitory collecting the children.”

Sr Barron called on the President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to do “all that you can to get the right people to act to secure the release and the safe return of all these people”.

In a statement today, the OLA remarked that the situation remains “unstable and grave”.

“Local authorities, Church leadership, and community groups are working urgently, though cautiously, to secure their release.

“No group has formally claimed responsibility, and the situation remains unstable.”

Sr Barron has called for the safe and swift return of the abducted children and staff and also called for “prayers and spiritual solidarity from people of goodwill around the world”.

Meanwhile, the school was founded by Cork priest Father Donall O’Cathain of the Society of African Missions, with the help of St Mary’s Secondary School in Newry, Co Down and Newry journalist Rowan Hand.

In a post to social media, Hand described the school as “our ‘Newry school’ in Nigeria” and called on the Church in Ireland to do all it can to aid in the recovery of the kidnapped children.

Meanwhile, Pope Leo XIV yesterday made “a heartfelt appeal for the immediate release of the hostages”.

He expressed his “deep sorrow, especially for the many young boys and girls kidnapped and for their anguished families,” at the end of the Angelus prayer.

Pope Leo calls for the release of hostages in Nigeria and Cameroon pic.twitter.com/mdJ6SMaaGQ

— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) November 23, 2025

“Let us pray for these brothers and sisters of ours and that churches and schools may always and everywhere remain places of safety and hope,” he said at the end of the Angelus prayer.

The abduction in St Mary’s came days after gunmen stormed a secondary school in neighbouring Kebbi state, taking 25 girls on Monday.

The following day, gunmen raided a church in Kwara state in an attack that was recorded and broadcast online, showing the service being interrupted by gunfire, worshippers fleeing and screaming being heard outside.

Two people were killed in that attack, but the 38 worshippers who were abducted were later rescued by security forces, President Bola Tinubu said yesterday on his X account.