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Agence France-Presse

Nigerian authorities have secured the release of 130 kidnapped schoolchildren taken by gunmen from a Catholic school in November, a presidential spokesman said on Sunday, after 100 were freed earlier this month.
“Another 130 abducted Niger state pupils released, none left in captivity,” Sunday Dare said in a post on X.
In late November, hundreds of students and staff were kidnapped from St Mary’s co-educational boarding school in north-central Niger state.
The attack came as the country buckled under a wave of mass abductions reminiscent of the infamous 2014 Boko Haram kidnapping of schoolgirls in the town of Chibok.
The West African country suffers from multiple interlinked security concerns, from jihadists in the northeast to armed “bandit” gangs in the northwest.
The exact number taken from St Mary’s has been unclear throughout the ordeal.

Initially, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said 315 students and staff were unaccounted for after the attack in the rural hamlet of Papiri.
Around 50 of them escaped immediately afterwards, and on December 7 the government secured the release of around 100.
That would leave about 165 thought to be still in captivity before Sunday’s announcement that 130 were rescued.
But a UN source said that all those taken appeared to have been released - as dozens thought to have been kidnapped had in fact managed to run off during the attack, and make their way home.
The accounting has been complicated because the children’s homes were scattered across swathes of rural Nigeria, sometimes requiring three or four hours of travel by motorbike to reach their remote villages, the source said.
The source said that “the remaining set of girls/secondary school students will be taken to Minna”, the capital of Niger state, on Monday.

“We’ll have to still do final verification,” Daniel Atori, a spokesman for CAN in Niger state, said.
He added that Niger state governor Mohammed Umaru Bago had called the bishop of the Kontagora diocese, which runs the school, “to confirm the release of the children and teachers”, though “the figure was not mentioned”.
It has not been made public who seized the children from their boarding school, or how the government secured their release.
Analysts have said that based on past rescues, it was likely the authorities paid a ransom, which is technically prohibited by law.
Kidnappings for ransom are a common way for criminals and armed groups to make quick cash in Nigeria.
But a spate of mass abductions in November put an uncomfortable spotlight on the country’s already grim security situation.
Assailants kidnapped two dozen Muslim schoolgirls, 38 church worshippers and a bride and her bridesmaids - with farmers, women and children also taken hostage.
The kidnappings came as Nigeria faces a diplomatic offensive from the United States, where President Donald Trump has alleged that there were mass killings of Christians that amounted to a “genocide” and threatened military intervention.
Nigeria’s government and independent analysts reject that framing, which has long been used by the Christian right in the United States and Europe.
One of the first mass kidnappings that drew international attention was in 2014, when nearly 300 girls were snatched from their boarding school in the northeastern town of Chibok by Boko Haram jihadists.
A decade later, Nigeria’s kidnap-for-ransom crisis has “consolidated into a structured, profit-seeking industry” that raised some US$1.66 million between July 2024 and June 2025, according to a recent report by SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based consultancy.


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Africa

Freed students at a reception in Minna on December 8. An additional 130 children were released in recent days. Photo: AFP

Bunk beds at St Mary’s co-educational boarding school after the abductions in November. Photo: Catholic Diocese of Kontagora via Reuters

St Mary’s co-educational boarding school in north-central Niger state. Photo: EPA

Nigeria’s government secures release of 100 kidnapped schoolchildren

Worried parents of abducted schoolchildren at St Mary’s Catholic school last month. Photo: AP

Bunk beds in a dormitory of St Mary’s. Photo: Catholic Diocese of Kontagora via Reuters

A police officer at St Mary’s. Photo: EPA

Dozens kidnapped from Catholic school in Nigeria escape captors

A classroom at St Mary’s school, where gunmen abducted more than 300 students and staff. Photo: AFP  

Empty dormitory beds at St Mary’s school, where gunmen abducted more than 300 students and staff. Photo: Catholic Diocese of Kontagora via Reuters

Gunmen seize 315 in latest Nigerian mass school kidnapping

Empty bunk beds and scattered belongings are seen inside a student dormitory at St Mary’s Catholic School on Saturday. Photo: Bulus Dauwa Yohanna/Christian Association of Nigeria/AFP

Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu addresses the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York in 2023. Tinubu cancelled international engagements, including attending the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to handle the crisis. Photo: AFP

A signboard for St Mary’s Private Catholic Secondary School. Photo: Bulus Dauwa Yohanna/Christian Association of Nigeria/AFP

Rail projects have been  a long-standing area of cooperation between China and a number of countries in Africa. Photo: Xinhua

The high number of Chinese workers for Tanzania is likely related to the ongoing construction of the Standard Gauge Railway, according to researcher Deborah Brautigam. Photo: Reuters 

Family members at the scene of the attack in Bekkersdal, Johannesburg, South Africa on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Forensic officials at the scene. Photo: Reuters

News

World

Presidential spokesman confirms ‘none left in captivity’ after an operation frees students taken by gunmen in November


Presidential spokesman confirms ‘none left in captivity’ after an operation frees students taken by gunmen in November.


Nigeria secures release of 130 children abducted from Catholic school

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Presidential spokesman confirms ‘none left in captivity’ after an operation frees students taken by gunmen in November

Presidential spokesman confirms ‘none left in captivity’ after an operation frees students taken by gunmen in November