STORY: A fortnight after one of Nigeria's worst school kidnappings, parents of the more than 250 missing children are desperate for news and dismayed at what they see as a slow response from authorities.
Two of Anthony Chieme's children were among those kidnapped on November 21 in a remote village of northern Nigeria.
"I miss them"
He says he cannot sleep or eat.
The Christian Association of Nigeria said 303 children and 12 school staff were kidnapped by gunmen at St Mary's Catholic boarding school in Niger state.
:: Social Communications department, Catholic diocese of Kontagora, Niger state
Fifty pupils managed to escape, but the whereabouts or conditions of the other children and staff is unknown.
Some of the missing children are as young a six.
Bishop Bulus Yohanna from Nigeria's Christian Association says he met with a national security advisor who said the children were fine.
''They will come back, they shouldn't lose hope, and we have been praying, and as I said that from my meeting with the NSA, they are fine, they are doing well, they are looking after them, they are fine, it is a matter of time they will be reunited.''
But anxious families say they've received no further updates, leaving them in limbo.
The identities of the kidnappers, believed to be hiding in the dense forests, are unknown and no ransom has been demanded, parents told Reuters.
They said they were called to the school last Friday, a full week after the kidnapping, to register their missing children with the police.
The registration was ordered after the state governor of Niger said the numbers of those kidnapped were exaggerated.
A Niger state police spokesperson said police documentation showed 215 students were still captive but did not say if all parents had registered their missing children.
The attack has put a spotlight on Nigeria's persistent insecurity.
President Bola Tinubu has declared a nationwide security emergency and ordered the recruitment of thousands of additional army and police personnel to tackle the surge in violence across the country.
Congregations across the region prayed for their safe return.
Amnesty International said in a statement that the government's failure to stop the kidnappings was putting the education of millions of Nigerian children at risk.
It said nearly 20,500 schools had been closed in seven northern states in the wake of the St Mary's school attack.
