PAPIRI, Nigeria (AP) — Several parents of the over 300 schoolchildren seized by armed men in the latest mass abduction in Nigeria tell The Associated Press the government has told them nothing about rescue efforts and the stress has been so high that one parent has died of a heart attack.
“Nobody from the government has briefed us about the abduction,” said Emmanuel Ejeh, whose 12-year-old son was taken from the Catholic school in Niger state.
Meanwhile, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said Wednesday in a statement that he has declared a nationwide security emergency and ordered additional recruitment into the army and police.
No armed group has claimed responsibility for Friday's abduction of 303 children from the remote community of Papiri, the latest in a series of high-profile seizures in search of ransom. Fifty of the students have since escaped.
The rise in mass abductions from schools comes as the Trump administration pressures Nigeria to act against what it calls the persecution of Christians there — a claim Nigeria's government denies. Such abductions had decreased in the past two years.
Experts say Muslims suffer just as much or more from the attacks by bandits and militants linked to al-Qaida or the Islamic State group.
Parents have gathered at the dusty school compound in Papiri, attempting to comfort each other. Ejeh said his wife fainted after hearing their son was taken.
“It is painful,” Ejeh said. “Mathew is a very kind boy who dreams of becoming a football player. He is after football day and night.”
Two parents of abducted children have died, one of a heart attack, said the bishop of Kontagora diocese, Rev. Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, who also runs the school.
A spokesperson for Nigeria's presidency, Bayo Onanuga, did not directly address parents' allegations of being left in the dark. Onanuga told the AP on Wednesday that the military is mounting pressure on the gunmen to release the children.
Nigerian authorities have said helicopters and ground troops have been deployed. Military personnel mingled with anxious parents this week.
The attack came days after gunmen seized 25 students in nearby Kebbi state. All have been rescued, Nigerian authorities said on Tuesday. On Wednesday, police said the students had been reunited with their families.
An AP tally shows that at least 1,799 students have been abducted in a dozen of the largest attacks in Nigeria starting with the seizure of 276 schoolgirls in the village of Chibok by Boko Haram militants, an attack that sparked global outrage.
Some students escape. Others are rescued. Some are never seen again.
"The police will recruit an additional 20,000 officers, bringing the total to 50,000,” the statement read. “My fellow Nigerians, this is a national emergency, and we are responding by deploying more boots on the ground, especially in security-challenged areas,” it added.
When Yohanna Yakubu, a church pastor, heard his daughter Mercy was among the 12 teachers also taken in the Papiri attack, he ran to the school. Other agonized parents were already there.
“I went straight to her room (at the dormitory) and saw that the window was broken,” Yakubu said. He called the lack of information from authorities frustrating.
These days he sits in silence, worry creasing his face.
Danteni Mathew's three children were abducted, but one escaped. He worries about the health of his youngest, who remains missing.
“Yahaya was not healthy before his abduction from the school as he is still battling with hepatitis C," Mathew said.
Under international scrutiny after the Chibok mass abduction, Nigeria's government initiated a Safe School Initiative with plans to involve military assets and train staff to improve safety at schools. Soldiers in some cases are stationed at schools considered vulnerable.
It was not immediately clear whether the Papiri school had received that training.
Activists and others assert that little has been done.
UNICEF last year said just 37% of schools across 10 states in Nigeria's volatile north have early-warning systems to detect threats.
“The fact is that Nigerian lives do not matter to the Nigerian government, and what matters to the Nigerian government is how good they look, so they are more focused on propaganda,” said Aisha Yesufu, who helped found the Bring Back Our Girls movement after the Chibok abduction.
Analysts say armed gangs often target schools for abductions because of the pressure they put on the government to negotiate ransoms.
The West African nation is battling dozens of armed groups operating in remote communities with limited government and security presence.
The crisis has become more complex as groups from other parts of the vast Sahel region have joined Boko Haram factions in trying to establish their presence in northern Nigeria, said James Barnett, a research fellow with the U.S.-based Hudson Institute.
“Both bandits and jihadists can have similar interests in conducting these sorts of mass abductions,” he said.
Adetayo reported from Lagos, Nigeria.
Police and government officials gather at St. Mary's Catholic Primary and Secondary School where gunmen on Friday abducted children and staff in Papiri community, Nigeria, Tuesday, Nov.25, 2025. (AP Photo/Yunusa Umar )
A sign of St. Mary's Catholic Primary and Secondary School, where gunmen on Friday abducted children and staff in Papiri community, Nigeria, Tuesday, Nov.25, 2025. (AP Photo/Yunusa Umar )
Police and government officials walk past St. Mary's Catholic Primary and Secondary School where gunmen on Friday abducted children and staff in Papiri community, Nigeria, Tuesday, Nov.25, 2025. (AP Photo/Yunusa Umar )
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that a deal to end the Iran war is near, after Tehran dismissed his 15-point ceasefire plan and issued its own sweeping demands to stop fighting as it launched more attacks on Israel and Gulf Arab countries.
Two officials from Pakistan described the 15-point U.S. proposal broadly, saying it included sanctions relief, a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program, limits on missiles and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is normally shipped.
Iran issued its own plan via state TV, which includes a halt to killings of its officials, means to make sure no other war is waged against it, reparations for the war, the end of hostilities, and Iran’s sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
“No negotiations have happened with the enemy until now, and we do not plan on any negotiations,” Iran’s foreign minister later told state TV.
Trump insisted at a Republican fundraiser Wednesday night that talks were underway with Iran's leaders.
“They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they’re afraid to say it because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people,” Trump said.
The death toll from the war has risen to more than 1,500 people in Iran, nearly 1,100 people in Lebanon, 20 in Israel and 13 U.S. military members, as well as a number of civilians on land and sea in the Gulf region. Millions of people in Lebanon and Iran have been displaced.
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Iran’s parliament is working on a bill to formalize the fees it is reportedly charging on some ship transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, local media reported.
The Fars and Tasnim news agencies, both close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, quoted lawmaker Mohammadreza Rezaei Kouchi as saying that “that “parliament is pursuing a plan to formally codify Iran’s sovereignty, control and oversight over the Strait of Hormuz, while also creating a source of revenue through the collection of fees.”
“This is entirely natural, just as goods pay transit fees when passing through other corridors, the Strait of Hormuz is also a corridor,” he reportedly said. “We provide its security, and it is natural that ships and oil tankers should pay such fees.”
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, is considered an international waterway open to all shipping. Imposing fees would end that and likely be strongly opposed by the Gulf Arab states, the United States and others.
The comment by Sultan al-Jaber, who leads the massive state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., signaled the hardening rhetoric of the United Arab Emirates as the war nears its one-month mark.
“Weaponizing the Strait of Hormuz is not an act of aggression against one nation,” al-Jaber said in a speech for an event hosted by the Middle East Institute in Washington.
“It is economic terrorism against every consumer, every family that depends on affordable energy and food. When Iran holds Hormuz hostage, every nation pays the ransom, at the gas pump, at the grocery store and at the pharmacy. No country can be allowed to destabilize the global economy in this way. Not now. Not ever.”
Sirens sounded about an hour after sunrise across a large swath of central Israel, including areas around Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and in the occupied West Bank.
Israel’s military said early Thursday morning that Iran had launched missiles toward the country.
The first such alert of the day came after an unusually long lull of more than 14 hours.
Hezbollah rocket fire, however, remained constant overnight in northern Israel, and once reached the Tel Aviv area overnight.
Iran is running a “de facto ‘toll booth’ regime” in Strait of Hormuz, controlling which ships come through and getting payment for their safe passage, a leading shipping intelligence firm said Thursday.
Lloyd’s List Intelligence published an analysis highlighting Iran’s practices through the strait.
It described vessels having to provide manifests, crew details and their destination to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
The information goes to the Guard’s “Hormozgan Provincial Command for sanctions screening, cargo alignment checks that currently prioritizes oil over all other commodities, and for what is described as ‘geopolitical vetting,’” Lloyd’s List said.
“While not all ships are paying a direct toll at least two vessels have and the payment is settled in yuan,” Lloyd’s List said, referring to China’s national currency.
Such payments likely would run afoul of American and European sanctions on the Guard, a key power center within Iran that controls its ballistic missile arsenal and was key in suppressing nationwide protests in January.
Iran has not directly explained the process for ships to go through the strait, though a Foreign Ministry spokesperson appeared to acknowledge Tehran was receiving payments for some ships in an interview.
Fuel prices in Thailand surged Thursday after the government lifted a cap on diesel prices and reduced fuel subsidies.
The majority of fuel types rose by 6 baht ($0.18) per liter.
Diesel prices jumped by about 18%.
The increase is expected to hit the industrial and transportation sectors particularly hard and has raised concerns about a ripple effect on the cost of goods.
Videos and photos shared on social media showed long lines forming at gas stations after the price hike was announced late Wednesday night.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said earlier this week the government would allow fuel prices to adjust in line with global market rates, aiming to manage demand following a surge in panic buying.
Australia has temporarily restricted some Iranians from traveling to the country for fear that they would be unwilling or unable to return to their homeland because of the war.
The restrictions apply from Thursday for six months to Iranian Visitor (Subclass 600) visa holders.
These visas have been issued to more than 7,000 Iranians who intend to visit Australia for tourism, business or to see family.
“When you get a sudden conflict like has happened with Iran, who have a large number of people who’ve been issued visas who, if they applied now, would in fact not be eligible,” Immigration Minister Tony Burke told Parliament on Thursday.
Authorities will use the six months to reassess visa applicants. An unknown number will be exempt.
Activists in Iran reported heavy strikes early Thursday morning around Isfahan, a city some 330 kilometers (205 miles) south of Iran’s capital, Tehran.
The pro-reform newspaper Ham Mihan reported online about strikes in the area.
Isfahan is home to a major Iranian air base and other military sites, as well as one of the nuclear sites bombed by the United States during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June.
The semiofficial Fars news agency, close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, described the attacks as targeting “two residential areas,” without elaborating.
Earlier, Israel’s military said it had completed “a wide-scale wave of strikes” across Iran, including in Isfahan.
A missile alert sounded on mobile phones in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Thursday morning.
Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said it intercepted multiple drones over its oil-rich Eastern Province on Thursday morning.
Kuwait reported it was working to intercept incoming Iranian fire early Thursday morning.
Bahrain sounded its missile alert sirens early Thursday morning.
The United Arab Emirates air defenses early Thursday also worked to intercept incoming fire.
U.S. forces have hit more than 10,000 targets so far in the Iran war, the head of the American military’s Central Command said.
U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper made the comments in a video released early Thursday by Central Command.
“If you combine what we’ve accomplished with the success of our Israeli ally, together, we have struck thousands more,” Cooper said. “Our precision strikes have overwhelmed Iranian air defenses and our combat flights are having tangible effects.”
Cooper added that the U.S. has destroyed 92% of “the Iranian navy’s largest vessels.”
“They’ve now lost the ability to meaningly project naval power and influence around the region and around the world,” Cooper said.
Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, through drone and missile attacks on shipping, however.
Cooper also said the U.S. has struck over two-thirds of Iran’s munitions plants.
“Today, we have damaged or destroyed over two-thirds of Iran’s missile, drone and naval production facilities and shipyards — and we’re not done yet,” he said. “We are on a path to completely eliminate Iran’s wider military manufacturing apparatus.”
Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press, though delayed by two weeks by Planet Labs PBC, have shown Israeli and U.S. strikes targeting shipyards and missile facilities.
Iran has not acknowledged any of its materiel losses through the war.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius described the Iran war as an economic “catastrophe” and said Germany did not want to get “sucked into” the conflict.
Pistorius said on Thursday Germany was ready to help secure any peace once that was achieved and appealed for a ceasefire as soon as possible.
“To make it crystal clear, this war is a catastrophe for the world’s economies,” Pistorius told reporters at the Australian Parliament House.
“From the beginning on, we have not been consulted before. Nobody asked us before. It’s not our war and therefore we don’t want to get sucked into that war,” Pistorius added.
Pistorius addressed the media in the national capital Canberra following a meeting with his Australian counterpart Richard Marles.
People take cover in a bomb shelter as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strikes in Bnei Brak, Israel, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Smoke and flames rise following an Israeli military strike on a target in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, March, 25, 2026.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Members of the displaced Abd el-Hajj family, and two of their cousins, right, who fled Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, sit inside a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Members of a family, who fled Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, sit around a bonfire outside a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Pro-government supporters chant slogans and wave Iranian flags during a rally, in a square in western Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
