Nigerian state secures release of 100 out of 265 kidnapped schoolchildren

Nigerian authorities have secured the release of 100 kidnapped schoolchildren taken by gunmen from a Catholic school last month, a UN source and local media said on Sunday, though the fate of another 165 students and staff thought to remain in captivity remained unclear.In November 315 students and staff were kidnapped from St Mary’s co-educational boarding school in north-central Niger state, as the country buckled under a wave of mass abductions reminiscent of the infamous 2014 Boko Haram abduction of schoolgirls in Chibok.About 50 of the abductees escaped shortly afterward, leaving 265 thought to be in captivity.The 100 children are set to be handed over to local government officials in Niger state on Monday, according to the United Nations source.A dormitory at St Mary’s school in Papiri, Niger state, Nigeria. Photograph: Catholic Diocese of Kontagora/Reuters“They are going to be handed over to Niger state government tomorrow,” the source told AFP on Sunday.Local media also reported that the release of 100 children had been secured, without offering details on whether it was done through negotiation or military force, nor on the fate on the remaining students and staff thought to still be in the kidnappers’ hands.The freeing of the 100 children was confirmed to AFP by presidential spokesperson Sunday Dare.“We have been praying and waiting for their return, if it is true then it is a cheering news,” said Daniel Atori, spokesperson for Bishop Bulus Yohanna of the Kontagora diocese which runs the school.“However, we are not officially aware and have not been duly notified by the federal government.”Though kidnappings for ransom are common in the country as a way for criminals and armed groups to make quick cash, in a spate of mass abductions in November hundreds were taken, putting an uncomfortable spotlight on Nigeria’s already grim security situation.The country faces a long-running jihadist insurgency in the north-east, while armed bandit gangs conduct kidnappings and loot villages in the north-west, and farmers and herders clash in the country’s centre over dwindling land and resources.On a smaller scale, armed groups linked to separatist movements also haunt the country’s restive south-east.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 north-eastern 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 about $1.66m (£1.24m) between July 2024 and June 2025, according to a recent report by SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based consultancy.