🔗 Share this article

Officials in Nigeria have ensured the liberation of one hundred seized schoolchildren captured by armed men from a religious school the previous month, as stated by a United Nations official and Nigerian press this past Sunday. However, the fate of another 165 students and staff believed to remain held captive was uncertain.

Context

During November, three hundred and fifteen individuals were abducted from St Mary’s mixed boarding school in north-central a Nigerian state, as the country was gripped by a wave of large-scale kidnappings reminiscent of the notorious 2014 Boko Haram abduction of schoolgirls in Chibok.

Approximately fifty escaped soon after, resulting in two hundred and sixty-five believed to be still held.

The Release

The a hundred students are due to be released to state authorities this Monday, stated by the United Nations source.

“They will be released to Niger state government tomorrow,” the source told AFP.

Regional reports also confirmed that the freeing of 100 children had been obtained, but did not provide specifics on whether it was the result of negotiation or a security operation, or about the situation of the still-missing individuals.

The release of the 100 children was announced to the press by presidential spokesman Sunday Dare.

Response

“We have been anxiously awaiting for their return, should this be accurate then it is a cheering event,” said a spokesman, spokesman for the local diocese of the religious authority which operates the institution.

“Yet, we are not formally informed and have not been duly notified by the national authorities.”

Broader Context

Although abductions for money are common in the country as a method for illegal actors to generate revenue, in a series of large-scale kidnappings in November, scores of individuals were abducted, casting an critical focus on the country's serious state of safety.

The nation is grappling with a protracted jihadist insurgency in the northeastern region, while marauding gangs perpetrate abductions and plunder villages in the north-west, and conflicts between agricultural and pastoral communities regarding scarce farmland occur in the country’s centre.

Additionally, armed groups linked to separatist movements also haunt the country’s volatile southeastern region.

The Chibok Shadow

Among the most prominent large-scale abductions that attracted international attention was in 2014, when almost three hundred girls were taken from their boarding school in the northeastern town of Chibok by insurgents.

Ten years on, the country's hostage-taking crisis has “become a organized, revenue-generating industry” that collected around $$1.66m (£1.24m) between July 2024 and June 2025, stated in a recent report by a Lagos-based research firm.