Nigerian authorities have announced the successful release of a further 130 schoolchildren who were kidnapped from a boarding school last month, bringing the traumatic ordeal to an end for all those taken.
All Pupils Now Accounted For
Presidential spokesperson Sunday Dare confirmed the development on social media platform X, stating "Another 130 abducted Niger state pupils released, none left in captivity." His post was accompanied by a photograph showing a group of the children, who appeared to be smiling after their release. This latest group will be transported to Minna, the capital of Niger state.
The children are all pupils of St Mary’s co-educational boarding school, located in the rural hamlet of Papiri in Nigeria's north-central Niger state. Gunmen stormed the school in late November, seizing hundreds of students and staff in a brazen attack.
A Confusing Tally of Victims
The precise number of people taken has been unclear since the incident. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) initially reported that 315 students and staff were kidnapped. According to their account, around 50 managed to escape shortly after the abduction. Then, on 7 December, the government secured the release of approximately 100 more individuals.
Following that, a statement from President Bola Tinubu indicated that 115 people remained in captivity—a figure roughly 50 fewer than the CAN's initial calculation would have suggested. The release of this final group of 130 now closes the chapter on this specific kidnapping.
A Grim Pattern of Mass Abductions
This event is part of a disturbing resurgence of mass kidnappings in Nigeria, evoking memories of the 2014 Chibok schoolgirls abduction by militant group Boko Haram. While kidnappings for ransom are a common criminal enterprise in the country, the scale and frequency of these attacks have intensified scrutiny on the nation's severe security challenges.
Just in November, apart from the St Mary's school incident, assailants separately kidnapped:
- Two dozen Muslim schoolgirls.
- 38 church worshippers.
- A bride and her bridesmaids.
Male farm workers, women, and children from various communities have also been taken hostage in recent months.
The identity of the group responsible for the St Mary's kidnapping and the exact means by which the government secured the children's release have not been made public. The situation unfolds against a complex backdrop where the religiously diverse nation of 230 million people contends with multiple security threats, including jihadist insurgencies in the north-east and armed criminal gangs in the north-west.
These conflicts have resulted in casualties among both Christian and Muslim communities. The kidnappings have also attracted international diplomatic attention, with the US Christian right framing violence against Christians in Nigeria as a "genocide"—a characterisation firmly rejected by the Nigerian government and independent analysts.
