Nigeria: 130 Catholic Schoolchildren Abducted by Terrorists Freed

By Al Ahed Staff, Agencies

Nigerian authorities announced that they have secured the release of 130 schoolchildren kidnapped from a Catholic boarding school in the country’s central Niger state last month.

“The remaining 130 schoolchildren abducted ⁠by terrorists … have now been released. They are expected to arrive in Minna on Monday, and rejoin their parents ⁠for the Christmas celebration … The freedom of the schoolchildren followed a military-intelligence driven operation,” President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu’s aide Bayo Onanuga said in a post published on social media platform X.

The abductions took place in late November, when gunmen stormed St Mary’s co-educational boarding school in the rural hamlet of Papiri, in north-central Niger state, seizing students and staff.

Since then, conflicting figures have emerged about how many people were taken and how many remained in captivity.

The Christian Association of Nigeria [CAN] said 315 students and staff were abducted, with about 50 escaping shortly after the attack and the government securing the release of roughly 100 more on December 7.

In a statement issued at the time, President Tinubu said 115 people were still being held, a figure lower than the one suggested by CAN’s initial estimate.

A UN source later said the remaining schoolchildren would be transported to Minna, the Niger state capital, on Tuesday.

Authorities have not disclosed who carried out the kidnappings or whether any ransom was paid to secure the releases.

 Nigerian authorities have secured the release of 100 schoolchildren abducted by gunmen from a Catholic school last month, a United Nations source and local media confirmed Sunday.

Nigeria has experienced a resurgence of mass abductions in recent months, reviving memories of the 2014 kidnapping of schoolgirls from Chibok by the militant group Boko Haram.

Kidnappings for ransom are a common tactic used by criminal gangs and armed groups, but the scale of recent attacks has intensified concerns over the country’s fragile security situation.

In November alone, attackers abducted two dozen Muslim schoolgirls, 38 church worshippers, and a bride with her bridesmaids. Male farm workers, women and children were also taken hostage in separate incidents.

The renewed violence comes as Nigeria faces heightened international scrutiny.