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The country's government have obtained the freedom of one hundred seized schoolchildren captured by armed men from a educational institution last month, according to a United Nations official and regional news outlets this past Sunday. Nevertheless, the situation of an additional 165 individuals presumed to continue being held captive was unknown.

Context

During November, 315 students and staff were kidnapped from a mixed boarding school in central a Nigerian state, as the nation buckled under a wave of mass abductions echoing the infamous 2014 jihadist group kidnapping of schoolgirls in Chibok.

Some fifty managed to flee shortly afterward, leaving 265 thought to be in captivity.

The Release

The 100 children are scheduled to be transferred to state authorities on Monday, stated by the United Nations source.

“They are going to be handed over to state authorities on Monday,” the source told a news agency.

Local media also stated that the freeing of the hostages had been secured, though they lacked details on if it was achieved via talks or military force, nor on the fate of the still-missing students and staff.

The liberation of the 100 children was confirmed to AFP by presidential spokesman Sunday Dare.

Statements

“We've been praying and waiting for their safe arrival, if it is true then it is a cheering development,” said Daniel Atori, spokesman for Bishop Bulus Yohanna of the Kontagora diocese which manages the school.

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

Security Situation

While kidnappings for ransom are widespread in the nation as a method for gangs and militants to generate revenue, in a spate of large-scale kidnappings in November, hundreds were taken, placing an uncomfortable spotlight on Nigeria’s deteriorating state of safety.

The country faces a years-long jihadist insurgency in the northeastern region, while armed bandit gangs carry out abductions and plunder villages in the northwestern region, and conflicts between farmers and herders regarding dwindling resources continue in the central belt.

On a smaller scale, armed groups linked to secessionist agendas also haunt the nation's unsettled south-east.

The Chibok Shadow

Among the most prominent mass kidnappings that attracted international attention was in 2014, when almost 300 girls were taken from their school in the northeastern town of Chibok by insurgents.

Ten years on, the country's kidnap-for-ransom crisis has “consolidated into a structured, revenue-generating business” that generated approximately a significant sum between July 2024 and June 2025, as per a recent report by a Nigerian consultancy.