Nigeria's school kidnapping crisis

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 November 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

Kate Adie introduces stories from Nigeria, Ukraine, the United States, Sweden and France.

Nigeria's president, Bola Tinubu, has declared a nationwide security emergency amidst a spate of kidnappings in the country’s north. More than 250 children abducted from a Catholic school last week are still missing, according to authorities. Mayeni Jones reports from Minna, in Niger state.

Moscow, Abu Dhabi, Kyiv and Geneva have all hosted peace negotiations this week, but despite the distances travelled, is an end to the war in Ukraine any closer? BBC Ukraine correspondent James Waterhouse has been watching the latest efforts to end the war, as nightly assaults continue in many Ukrainian cities.

When Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, he was quick to repeal a range of policies introduced by the previous administration. Among them, a moratorium on Federal Executions. Hilary Andersson was recently selected as a media witness for an execution in Oklahoma.

The longest strike in the modern history of Sweden recently passed its second anniversary. It’s a simple argument: whether or not to recognize the right of the union to negotiate on behalf of its members. Tim Mansel meets the mechanics taking on one of the world's richest companies, Tesla.

And finally, we head to the Loire Valley in central France, where over centuries the steady flow of the Allier River has shaped the distinctive setting for a small village. While the ebb and flow of the river has long influenced life in the region, the effects of climate change mean its future is now less certain. Sara Wheeler reflects on its unusual evolution.

Series Producer: Serena Tarling Production coordinators: Katie Morrison and Sophie Hill Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:05.5	Hello. Today, Moscow, Abu Dhabi, Kiev and Geneva have all hosted peace negotiations this week,
0:13.8	but despite the distance has travelled, is an end to the war in Ukraine any closer.
0:19.4	In the US, we witness the consequences of Donald Trump's decision
0:23.6	to lift a moratorium on the death penalty. In Sweden, we hear how metalworkers are taking on
0:30.7	the mighty force of Elon Musk's Tesla, and we're in the Loire Valley, where a riverside village
0:37.0	shaped over centuries is now under threat from climate change.
0:41.9	But first, Nigeria's president, Bolo Tinoubu, has declared a nationwide security emergency amidst a spate of kidnappings in the country's north.
0:51.6	More than 250 children abducted from a Catholic school last Friday
0:57.0	in Niger state are still missing, according to authorities. The incident was a third such
1:03.7	abduction in Nigeria in a week, leading President Tinoubu to cancel his trip to the G20 summit
1:10.4	in South Africa.
1:12.3	As yet, no individual group has claimed responsibility.
1:16.6	Myani Jones has been in Minna, the capital of Niger state.
1:21.4	The first story I covered as a new foreign correspondent was a mass kidnapping.
1:25.6	Over 100 schoolgirls had been abducted from their boarding school
1:28.5	in the northeastern Nigerian town of Dapsi in February of 2019. A month later, just as I landed in
1:35.9	Lagos from London for the very first time, they were released. Within hours of landing in the country,
1:41.3	that would be my home for the next six and a half years, I was filing for every outlet at the BBC on a story that would go on to dominate my career.
1:49.6	During my time in Nigeria, I covered five more mass kidnappings of children.
1:53.6	In 2021, I filmed a documentary about the uptick in abductions,
1:57.6	interviewing parents, children and politicians across three northern Nigerian states.
	...

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