The wait for news has become unbearable for parents of the schoolchildren kidnapped in Nigeria two weeks ago an ordeal that shows no sign of ending. Many families say authorities are failing to treat the rescue effort with the urgency the situation demands.
More than 250 children are still being held after armed men stormed a Catholic boarding school before dawn on November 21. The attackers abducted more than 300 students and staff in one of the largest school kidnappings the country has seen in years. School officials say about 50 children managed to escape in the chaos.
The mass abduction is the worst since Boko Haram seized 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in 2014, an attack that drew global outrage. Since then, kidnappings have become frighteningly common in Nigeria, where armed groups including criminal gangs regularly target schools for ransom.
Security forces say they are working to locate the abductees and bring them home safely. But for many parents, those assurances ring hollow. They say they have received no meaningful updates and fear the government is not moving fast enough.
President Bola Tinubu has declared a national security emergency and ordered the recruitment of additional security personnel. Still, frustration continues to grow as families demand more visible action.
Nigeria has experienced at least a dozen mass school kidnappings since 2014. More than 1,799 students have been abducted in that time many eventually freed, but some never returned.
For the parents now waiting in anguish, each passing day feels like a reminder of that grim history, and a test of hope that their children will be rescued alive.
