279 abducted Nigerian students released

Gusau, Nigeria. Abducted Nigerian schoolgirls released. All 279 people abducted from a private school in the northern part of the country have been released. All the abductees are said to be female students.

They are being held under government protection, government officials told AFP on Tuesday.

“I am just happy to hear that the abducted girl has been released,” said Dr. Bello Matawalle, the governor of Jamfara state.

He also said that Allah has blessed the girls to return safely. Nigeria has a long history of child abductions.

Authorities had earlier said that 317 girls had been abducted from a secondary school in the remote village of Jangebe by hundreds of gunmen. But later it was reported that the number was 279.

Criminal gangs with large quantities of weapons have been wreaking havoc in northwestern and central Nigeria in recent years. They have been kidnapping, raping and looting people for ransom.

The Nigerian military has been operating in the area since 2016 and a peace deal was signed with the gunmen in 2019, but the attacks have not stopped.

More than 300 children were abducted from a school in Kankara last December. The area is in Katsina, the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari. But the boy was later released by his captors.

But the abduction of 276 schoolgirls by a jihadi group from Chibok was terrifying. Although some have been released by jihadist groups following widespread government military action, some children are still missing.

According to Lagos-based research firm SB Morgan, a ransom of 11 million was paid to the kidnappers between January 2016 and March 2020 alone.

According to another study by the International Crisis Group, this African region has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, citing security risks in schools.