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Officials in Nigeria have obtained the freedom of a hundred kidnapped pupils taken by armed men from a educational institution last month, according to a source within the UN and local media this past Sunday. However, the fate of a further 165 students and staff presumed to continue being under the control of kidnappers remained unclear.

Context

Last month, 315 people were kidnapped from St Mary’s co-educational residential school in north-central a Nigerian state, as the country buckled under a series of large-scale kidnappings similar to the infamous 2014 Boko Haram kidnapping of female students in a town in north-east Nigeria.

Approximately 50 escaped shortly afterward, resulting in two hundred and sixty-five thought to be under kidnappers' control.

The Release

The one hundred students are set to be transferred to local government officials on Monday, according to the United Nations source.

“They will be handed over to state authorities on Monday,” the source stated to AFP.

News outlets also confirmed that the liberation of the hostages had been achieved, though they lacked specifics on if it was the result of talks or armed intervention, or about the situation of the other hostages.

The release of the students was confirmed to AFP by an official representative Sunday Dare.

Reaction

“We've been praying and waiting for their return, if it is true then it is wonderful event,” said a spokesman, representing Bishop Bulus Yohanna of the Kontagora diocese which manages the school.

“However, we are without official confirmation and have not received proper notification by the government.”

Wider Crisis

Although abductions for money are common in the country as a means for gangs and militants to fund their activities, in a wave of mass abductions in November, many people were taken, putting an uncomfortable spotlight on Nigeria’s already grim state of safety.

The nation faces a protracted Islamist militant uprising in the northeastern region, while criminal groups conduct abductions and loot villages in the northwestern region, and disputes between agricultural and pastoral communities concerning diminishing land and resources occur in the country’s centre.

Additionally, militant factions linked to separatist movements also are active in the country’s unsettled south-east.

Historical Precedent

Among the earliest mass kidnappings that garnered worldwide outrage was in 2014, when about 300 schoolgirls were abducted from their school in the northeastern town of Chibok by the militant group.

A decade later, the country's hostage-taking crisis has “become a systematic, profit-seeking industry” that generated around a significant sum between last year, as per a study by a Lagos-based research firm.