The Federal government of Nigeria has announced the release of 100 kidnapped schoolchildren taken by gunmen from Saint Mary Catholic School Papiri last month.
This was confirmed to AFP by presidential spokesperson Sunday Dare on Sunday. However, the fate of 165 other students and staff who are believed to be victims of the Kidnap remain unclear.
In November 315 students and staff were kidnapped from St Mary’s co-educational boarding school in north-central Niger state
Earlier, it was reported that about 50 of the abductees escaped shortly afterward, leaving 265 believed to be in captivity.
Although details of their release was not disclosed, the 100 children are set to be handed over to local government officials in Niger state on Monday, according to the United Nations source. It is not known if the release of the children was done through negotiation or military force.
Nigeria 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 some states in the middle belt region..
One of the first mass kidnappings that drew international attention took place in 2014, when nearly 300 girls were snatched from their boarding school in the north-eastern town of Chibok by Boko Haram jihadists.
