A total of 100 of the schoolchildren abducted from a Nigerian Catholic school last month and released over the weekend were hosted at a government-organised ceremony on Monday, many of them looking lost but relieved. Source: Crux.
Details surrounding their release were not made public and the Nigerian Government has not said if any ransom – common in such abductions – was paid.
At least 303 schoolchildren and 12 of their teachers were seized in Niger state when gunmen attacked St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri community on November 21. Fifty escaped in the hours that followed and at least 150 are still held, together with the teachers.
The freed schoolchildren arrived at the Niger Government House in the state capital of Minna in several buses accompanied by military trucks. They were then received by officials who hugged and shook hands with some, before posing with them in front of cameras.
Niger state governor Mohammed Bago said health workers and experts would “thoroughly examine” the children before they are returned to their parents in Papiri.
“To those who have been praying, please continue to pray,” Mr Bago told a gathering of government and security officials. “We hope to recover the remaining students who are still in captivity.”
Most of the freed children – between the ages of 10 and 17, according to the school – arrived wearing soccer jerseys, robes and slippers. Officials said they had been in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, since the news of their release broke on Sunday night.
The parents in faraway Papiri said they were not told about the release of the 100 and only learned about it from the media.
Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu, commended security agencies “for their steadfast work” in ensuring the safe return of the students, but did not provide further details.
“My directive to our security forces remains that all the students and other abducted Nigerians across the country must be rescued and brought back home safely,” Mr Tinubu added.
No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction, but locals blamed armed gangs that target schools and travellers in kidnappings for ransoms across Nigeria’s conflict-battered north.
FULL STORY
100 schoolchildren abducted in Nigeria are released but more are still held (By Chinedu Asadu, Yunusa Umar, AP via Crux)
