Nigerian authorities managed to free 130 students kidnapped by armed men from a Catholic school in November, a presidential spokesperson said on Sunday. The announcement came after the release of another 100 students earlier this month. “Another 130 students kidnapped in Niger State have been released; there is no one left in captivity,” said Sunday Dare in X, in a post accompanied by a photo showing smiling children.
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In late November, hundreds of students and staff were kidnapped from the Saint Mary co-educational boarding school in north-central Niger state.
The exact number of those kidnapped and those remaining in captivity is unknown, but the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said 315 students and staff were taken.
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One of the first mass kidnappings in Nigeria took place in 2014, when Boko Haram jihadists captured 300 students in Chibok. A decade later, the whereabouts of 90 of them are unknown.
Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, with 230 million inhabitants, is divided between the north, with a Muslim majority, and the south, with a Christian majority.
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