Nigerian authorities have secured the release of 100 schoolchildren who were abducted from a Catholic boarding school last month, a United Nations source and local media said on Sunday. The fate of another 165 students and staff believed to remain in captivity was not immediately clear.
In November, gunmen seized 315 students and staff from St Mary’s co-educational boarding school in north-central Niger state, in one of a string of mass abductions that recalled the 2014 Boko Haram kidnapping of schoolgirls in Chibok. About 50 of the abductees escaped shortly afterward, leaving 265 thought to be held.
The UN source said the 100 children are due to be handed over to Niger state government officials on Monday. “They are going to be handed over to Niger state government tomorrow,” the source told AFP. Local media also reported the release but did not say whether it resulted from negotiations, military action or other means, nor did they provide details on the remaining captives.
The freeing of the 100 children was confirmed to AFP by presidential spokesperson Sunday Dare. Daniel Atori, spokesperson for Bishop Bulus Yohanna of the Kontagora diocese that runs the school, said: “We have been praying and waiting for their return, if it is true then it is a cheering news.” He added that the diocese had not been officially notified by the federal government.
Kidnappings for ransom are widespread in Nigeria, where criminals and armed groups use abduction as a profit-making enterprise. In November’s spate of mass kidnappings, hundreds were taken, underscoring a deteriorating security situation across the country.
Nigeria faces a long-running jihadist insurgency in the northeast, while armed bandit gangs conduct kidnappings and raids in the northwest. Conflicts between farmers and herders over scarce land and resources fuel violence in the central regions, and armed groups tied to separatist movements operate in parts of the southeast.
One of the first mass kidnappings to draw global attention occurred in 2014, when nearly 300 girls were taken from their boarding school in Chibok by Boko Haram. A recent report by Lagos-based consultancy SBM Intelligence said Nigeria’s kidnap-for-ransom crisis has “consolidated into a structured, profit-seeking industry,” estimating it generated about $1.66m between July 2024 and June 2025.
