More than 100 Nigerian students kidnapped by armed gunmen arrive back in Kaduna

https://nation.africa/

Wrapped in orange headscarves and blue school uniforms, over 100 Nigerian students and staff who were kidnapped earlier this month, arrived at a local government building in Kaduna, in the country's north, on Monday (March 25), a day after they were freed by the army.

The army announced on Sunday it had rescued 137 hostages - 76 female and 61 male - in the neighboring state of Zamfara, days before a deadline to pay a 1 billion naira ($690,000) ransom for their release. According to Major General MLD Saris of the Nigerian Army six of the released were still hospitalised, and would soon return, and that one person, a school staff member, had died in captivity making the number of hostages 138.

School officials and residents put the number of students kidnapped on March 7 in the town of Kuriga in the northwestern state of Kaduna at 287 while Governor Uba Sani put the figure at over 200. Given the discrepancies in the numbers reported, it was unclear if any hostages remained captured. Kuriga elders said Sani had told them all the hostages had been freed.

The abduction of students in Nigeria began over a decade ago when jihadist group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from a school in Chibok in northeastern Borno State. Some of the girls have still not been released.