By CHINEDU ASADU and YUNUSA UMAR Associated Press
MINNA, Nigeria (AP) — A total of 100 of the schoolchildren abducted from a Nigerian Catholic school last month and released over the weekend were hosted at a government-organized ceremony on Monday, many of them looking lost but relieved.
Details surrounding their release were not made public and the government has not said if any ransom — common in such abductions — was paid.
At least 303 schoolchildren were seized in Niger state together with 12 of their teachers when gunmen attacked St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri community on Nov. 21. Fifty escaped in the hours that followed and at least 150 are still held, together with the teachers.
The freed schoolchildren arrived at the Niger Government House in the state capital of Minna in several buses accompanied by military trucks. They were then received by officials who hugged and shook hands with some, before posing with them in front of cameras.
The Niger state governor, Mohammed Bago, said health workers and experts would “thoroughly examine” the children before they are returned to their parents in Papiri.
“To those who have been praying, please continue to pray,” Bago told a gathering of government and security officials. “We hope to recover the remaining students who are still in captivity.”
Most of the freed children — between the ages of 10 and 17, according to the school — arrived wearing soccer jerseys, robes and slippers. Officials said they had been in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, since the news of their release broke on Sunday night.
The parents in faraway Papiri say they were not told about the release of the 100 and only learned about it from the media. With anguish and anticipation, many wondered if their children were among those released or still held.
“I’m just worried about his safety but praying he should be among” the freed, Samuel Musa said of his 13-year-old son who was abducted at the school. “His mother has been sick since the abduction.”
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu commended security agencies “for their steadfast work” in ensuring the safe return of the students, but did not provide further details.
“My directive to our security forces remains that all the students and other abducted Nigerians across the country must be rescued and brought back home safely,” Tinubu added.
No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction, but locals blamed armed gangs that target schools and travelers 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 neighboring Kebbi state’s Maga town. A church in the southern Kwara state was also attacked around the same time — the 38 worshipers abducted in that attack last month have also been freed.
Under pressure at home and from U.S. President Donald Trump — who has alleged that Christians are being targeted in Nigeria’s security crisis — Tinubu has promised he will not relent until all hostages are freed.
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. Officials do not admit payment of ransoms.
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Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria.
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AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa