Nigerian state secures release of 100 out of 265 kidnapped schoolchildren | Nigeria
Nigerian authorities have secured the release of 100 schoolchildren kidnapped by gunmen from a Catholic school last month, but the fate of 165 other students and staff thought to remain in captivity remains unclear, a UN source and local media said on Sunday.
In November, 315 students and staff were abducted from St Mary’s co-educational boarding school in north-central Niger state, as the country was swept under a wave of mass abductions reminiscent of the Boko Haram abduction of schoolgirls in Chibok in 2014.
Approximately 50 of the abductees escaped shortly afterwards, and 265 were thought to be in captivity.
According to a United Nations source, 100 children will be handed over to local government authorities in Niger state on Monday.
“They will be handed over to the Niger state government tomorrow,” the source told AFP on Sunday.
Local media also reported that the release of 100 children had been secured, but details were not given as to whether this was through negotiation or military force, or the fate of the remaining students and staff thought to be still in the hands of the kidnappers.
The release of 100 children was confirmed to AFP by presidential spokesman Sunday Dare.
“We prayed and waited for their return, and if this is true, it is good news,” said Daniel Atori, spokesman for Bishop Bulus Yohanna of the Kontagora diocese, which runs the school.
“But we are not officially aware of this and have not been properly notified by the federal government.”
Although kidnappings for ransom are common in the country as a way for criminals and armed groups to make a quick buck, mass kidnappings in November abducted hundreds of people, shedding a disturbing light on Nigeria’s already dire security situation.
The country faces a long-running jihadist insurgency in the northeast, while gangs of armed bandits kidnap and pillage villages in the northwest, while farmers and herders clash in the center of the country over dwindling land and resources.
On a smaller scale, armed groups linked to separatist movements also plague the country’s restive southeast.
One of the first mass kidnappings to attract international attention was the 2014 abduction of nearly 300 girls by Boko Haram jihadists from their boarding school in the northeastern town of Chibok.
A decade later, Nigeria’s kidnap-for-ransom crisis has “evolved into a structured, for-profit industry” that has collected around $1.66 million (£1.24 million) between July 2024 and June 2025, according to a recent report from SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based consultancy.
