Nigeria says 130 kidnapped schoolchildren freed

Some 130 schoolchildren and staff abducted from a school in Nigeria last month by gunmen have been released, police said.

Gunmen seized at least 303 schoolchildren and 12 teachers in Nigeria’s north-central Niger state when they attacked a school on November 21.

Fifty escaped in the hours that followed, and 100 schoolchildren were freed earlier this month.

Niger police spokesperson Wasiu Abiodun said in a statement on Sunday that “the remaining batch of the abducted students" has now been released.

“A total number of 130 victims, including the staff, have been released,” Abiodun said.

When asked about the 35 unaccounted-for schoolchildren and missing teachers, Abiodun told The Associated Press, “Further details will be communicated.”

But a UN source told AFP that all those taken appeared to have been released, as dozens thought to have been kidnapped had in fact managed to run off during the attack and make their way home.

The accounting has been complicated because the children's homes are scattered across swathes of rural Nigeria, sometimes requiring three or four hours of travel by motorbike to reach their remote villages, the source said.

Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga said in a post on X that the “remaining 130 abducted schoolchildren” have been released.

He said the released schoolchildren would arrive in Minna, the Niger state capital, on Monday and rejoin their parents for Christmas.

“The freedom of the schoolchildren followed a military intelligence-driven operation,” Onanuga said.

‘None in captivity’

Sunday Dare, another spokesperson for Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, also said 130 schoolchildren were released and that none are left in captivity, in a post on X.

No group has claimed responsibility for the November 21 abduction, but locals blamed armed gangs that target schools and travellers in kidnappings for ransoms across Nigeria’s conflict-battered north.

The Niger state attack was among a spate of recent mass abductions in Nigeria and happened four days after 25 schoolchildren were seized in similar circumstances in neighbouring Kebbi state’s Maga town.

Bola Tinubu had been under pressure at home and from US President Donald Trump, who has alleged that Christians are being targeted in Nigeria’s security crisis.

The kidnappings came as Nigeria faces a diplomatic offensive from the United States, where Trump has alleged that there were mass killings of Christians that amounted to a "genocide" and threatened military intervention.

Nigeria's government and independent analysts reject that framing, which has long been used by the Christian right wing in the United States and Europe.

Nigerian authorities usually do not say much about rescue efforts, and arrests in such cases are rare.

Analysts believe that’s because ransoms are usually paid, but officials do not admit payment of ransoms.

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Source: TRT