Hundreds protest in Spain in support of Christians kidnapped in Nigeria

Hundreds of people gathered outside the Nigerian embassy in the Spanish capital, Madrid, on Saturday to show support for Christians kidnapped and attacked in that country.

The protest comes after more than 250 children were kidnapped from a Catholic school in northern Nigeria just over a week ago.

Christiana Wariboko, president of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, called for more intervention from international aid organisations and governments.

"We're standing on behalf of Christians, representing Nigerian Christians," she said. "Please intervene and do something as it regards [to] the killings of Nigerian Christians."

The country has been rocked by two separate mass abductions of schoolchildren in the past three weeks, and a deadly assault on a church service.

Gunmen also attacked a predominantly Muslim school in Kebbi, abducting 30 students before the government secured their release.

Security experts say such attacks and kidnappings are motivated by money, and schools are easy targets as they lack adequate security.

This latest wave of abductions come as US President Donald Trump threatened military action in Nigeria over what he claims is the persecution of Christians by radical Islamists.

Human rights experts, however, say more Muslims have been killed by the Islamist Boko Haram group than Christians.

Abuja says claims that Christians face persecution misrepresent a complex security situation and does not take into account efforts to safeguard religious freedom.

President Bola Tinubu declared a state of emergency last week, bolstering the country’s police force to combat escalating attacks.

Since 2014, there have been at least a dozen mass abductions of school students, and at least 1,799 students have been kidnapped since then.

Some of them are never rescued.