PAPIRI, Nigeria (AP) — Hundreds of parents whose children were abducted last week at a Catholic school in north-central Niger gathered Friday at the school site to plead with the government for their children’s rescue.

More than 250 children remain captive after gunmen stormed the school early morning on Nov. 21 and carted away more than 300 students and staff. According to school authorities, 50 children managed to escape.

Parents say they are waiting in pain for news of the release.

“The children they took, some of them are still of tender age,” Abuchi Nwolisa, a parent at the school, told The Associated Press. “They took some of them from their sleeping bed.”

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu declared a state of emergency earlier this week, bolstering the country’s police force to com

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