A father has told the BBC he felt powerless as he witnessed gunmen on motorbikes abduct dozens of children, including his son, after storming a Catholic boarding school in northern Nigeria in the early hours of Friday.
The father said he was asleep when he was awoken by the noise of the gunmen as they went past his home with the children they had seized from St Mary's school in Papiri village in Niger state.
"They [the children] were being trafficked on foot the way shepherds control their herds. Some children were falling and the men would kick them and instruct them to stand up.
"The gunmen were on about 50 motorcycle bikes while controlling them," said the father, whose name we have changed to Theo for his safety.
Speaking to the BBC in the dormitory where his son used to sleep, Theo said he was in no position to stop the abduction.
