130 kidnapped Nigerian schoolchildren freed: government

Abuja: Nigerian authorities have secured the release of 130 kidnapped schoolchildren taken by gunmen from a Catholic school in November, a presidentia...

Abuja: Nigerian authorities have secured the release of 130 kidnapped schoolchildren taken by gunmen from a Catholic school in November, a presidential spokesman said Sunday, after 100 were freed earlier this month.

"Another 130 abducted Niger state pupils released, none left in captivity," Sunday Dare said in a post on X, accompanied by a photo of smiling children.

In late November, hundreds of students and staff were kidnapped from St Mary's co-educational boarding school in north-central Niger state.

The attack came as the country buckled under a wave of mass abductions reminiscent of the infamous 2014 Boko Haram kidnapping of schoolgirls in Chibok.

The west African country suffers from multiple interlinked security concerns, from jihadists in the northeast to armed "bandit" gangs in the northwest.