One hundred children who were abducted from a Catholic school in northwestern Nigeria last month have been released, government and church officials said on Monday, but it is still unclear when the children will be reunited with their families.
The released abductees were among more than 260 mainly primary and nursery school children, some as young as 5 years old, who were kidnapped by armed men from a Catholic boarding school in Papiri, a town in Niger State, on Nov. 21. Twelve staff members at the school were also kidnapped.
Daniel Atori, an aide to Bishop Bulus Yohanna, the archbishop for the diocese where the school is, said the children were released on Sunday.
But it was not immediately clear how they were freed or if anyone had been arrested in connection with the kidnappings. Victims of kidnappings in Nigeria are often released in exchange for ransom, but it is not clear whether the government had paid it in this case.
The mass abduction was part of recent spate of kidnappings that human rights groups say reflects worsening insecurity in Nigeria and contributes to the roughly 19 million out-of-school children in the country, among the highest numbers in the world.
Mr. Atori said the released children would first be handed over to the local governor, who may keep them for a few days “in an observatory arrangement for psychosocial treatment.” After that, Mr. Atori said, the children will be transferred to Bishop Yohanna, who oversees the school, before being returned to their families.
At least 50 of the children ran away and hid when gunmen stormed the school but returned a few days later, according to school authorities. About 165 schoolchildren and staff remain captive after Sunday’s release.
The recent abductions come as Nigeria faces intense scrutiny from the U.S. over widespread killings by a range of armed groups and insurgents. President Donald Trump last month amplified allegations of a genocide against Christians in Nigeria, threatening possible U.S. military action in Africa’s most populous nation.
But kidnappings and terror attacks in Nigeria are common, with more than 8,000 people killed this year alone, and there is no clear evidence to suggest Christians are attacked any more frequently than Muslims.
The kidnappings at the Catholic school occurred just four days after 24 Muslim girls were abducted in Kebbi State, another area of northwestern Nigeria. Two of those girls later escaped, and the rest were eventually released.
Some victims of previous kidnappings have not been heard from again. In 2014, the Boko Haram terrorist group abducted almost 300 girls from a school dormitory in Chibok, in the northeast of the country, in one of the best known mass abductions. Some of the students escaped and others were released, but many remain in captivity.
Saikou Jammeh is a reporter and researcher for The Times based in Dakar, Senegal.
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