The remaining 130 children abducted by gunmen in November from a Catholic school in Nigeria’s north-central Niger state have been released, the presidential spokesperson said on Sunday, confirming that all abducted students had been released.
“Another 130 abducted Niger State students have been released and no one was taken into custody,” spokesperson Sunday Dare said in a post to X, accompanied by photos of smiling children.
A spokesperson did not provide details about the circumstances of his release.
The students were taken in November when armed robbers attacked St. Mary’s Private Catholic School and abducted 303 children and 12 teachers, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). The victims included boys and girls, some as young as 10 years old.
CAN said at the time that 50 students had escaped and returned to their families less than 48 hours after their abduction. Earlier this month, the Nigerian government announced that security forces had rescued 100 of the kidnap victims.
Dare’s Sunday post said the last number of students detained was 130, which is slightly fewer than the number still believed to be incarcerated. CNN has asked the Nigerian President’s Office for an explanation.
The November abductions were the latest in a wave of attacks by armed groups, which have targeted vulnerable civilians, particularly schools, and carried out mass kidnappings for ransom. Violence has repeatedly erupted in the country due to communal and ethnic tensions, as well as conflicts between farmers and herders over limited access to land and water resources.
