300 abducted Nigerian school children freed after over two weeks in captivity

Parents wait for news about the kidnapped LEA Primary and Secondary School Kuriga students in Kuriga, Kaduna, Nigeria, on March 9, 2024

Nearly 300 kidnapped Nigerian schoolchildren were released Sunday, local officials said Sunday, more than two weeks after the children were seized from their school in the north-western state of Kaduna.

Kaduna state Gov. Uba Sani did not give details of the release of the 287 students, who abducted from their school in the remote town of Kuriga on March 7. In a statement, he thanked Nigerian President Bola Tinubu “particularly ensuring that the abducted Kuriga school children are released unharmed.”

Tinubu had vowed to rescue the children “without paying a dime” as ransom.

Abductions of students from schools in northern Nigeria are common and have been a major source of concern since 2014, when Islamic extremists kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls in Borno state’s Chibok village. In recent years, abductions have been concentrated in the country’s north-western and central regions, where dozens of armed groups often target villagers and travellers for ransom.