Nigeria says 130 kidnapped schoolchildren freed after a month

Nigerian authorities on Sunday said that 130 children abducted from a Catholic school last month are now free.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu's spokesman, Sunday Dare, said that none of the 303 pupils from St Mary's Catholic School in Niger State abducted on November 21 are still in captivity.

Dan Atori, spokesman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Niger State, told dpa that the children are expected to arrive in the state capital Minna on Monday.

According to media reports, the children had already been released on Friday, but transport difficulties delayed their arrival. The reports said the children were released in the Borgu region, a remote and difficult-to-access area.

The children were abducted on November 21. At that time, 303 children and 12 teachers from St Mary's Catholic School in the community of Papiri were abducted. The majority of those abducted were primary school children under the age of 12. According to parents, there were also 5-year-olds among the children taken.

Around 50 children managed to escape soon after the abduction or were left behind during the march into the bush. In recent weeks, more children have gradually been released.

No group has officially claimed responsibility for the kidnappings. However, a criminal gang operating in the region is believed to be responsible.

Nigeria has for years seen repeated mass kidnappings from schools, carried out by criminal gangs and jihadist groups such as Boko Haram. Several states in northern and central Nigeria ordered the closure of some or all schools after the latest wave of abductions in November.

The most serious kidnapping of this kind was the 2014 attack on a girls' school in the town of Chibok, which saw Islamist militia Boko Haram abduct 276 schoolgirls. Eighty-two of the girls are still missing today.