The remaining 130 schoolchildren abducted in one of the largest mass kidnappings in Nigeria this year have been freed, the West African nation’s authorities announced on Sunday.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, said the children, kidnapped on November 21 from St. Mary’s Catholic boarding school in Papiri, Niger state, were released following a military intelligence operation.
“They are expected to arrive in Minna on Monday and rejoin their parents for the Christmas celebration,” Onanuga wrote on X.
Gunmen seized more than 300 students and 12 staff in the pre-dawn attack on the north-central school, part of a surge in school abductions that has alarmed communities and drawn criticism of Nigeria’s security strategy. Fifty students escaped soon after the assault, and authorities secured the release of 100 others on December 8.
No group has publicly claimed responsibility for the Papiri abduction, the largest mass school kidnapping since Boko Haram seized 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in 2014.
The government has referred to all the victims as “released,” but has not clarified how their freedom was negotiated nor provided details on any arrests, sparking allegations that ransoms might have been paid in violation of Nigerian laws. In April 2022, lawmakers in Africa’s most populous country amended the Terrorism (Prevention) Act to criminalize ransom payments, making anyone who pays a kidnapper liable to a prison term of at least 15 years.
Armed gangs that kidnap for ransom are active across Nigeria’s conflict-affected north. Similar incidents have struck repeatedly in recent weeks.
In mid-November, 25 girls were seized from a boarding school in Kebbi state, in an attack in which the vice principal was killed. The girls were later released. According to estimates published by Amnesty International, the government has shut at least 20,468 schools across seven states in response to the incidents.
Late last month, President Tinubu declared a nationwide security emergency and ordered the deployment of thousands of military and police personnel, intensifying operations amid pressure to improve protection for schools and communities targeted by organized criminal and militant groups