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The country's government have ensured the liberation of one hundred seized students seized by attackers from a educational institution last month, as stated by a UN source and regional news outlets this past Sunday. Yet, the whereabouts of another one hundred and sixty-five hostages believed to still be in captivity stayed uncertain.

Background

During November, three hundred and fifteen students and staff were abducted from St Mary’s mixed boarding school in central a Nigerian state, as the nation faced a wave of large-scale kidnappings similar to the well-known 2014 jihadist group kidnapping of schoolgirls in a town in north-east Nigeria.

Approximately 50 got away in the immediate aftermath, leaving 265 believed to be under kidnappers' control.

Freedom for Some

The a hundred students are due to be transferred to Niger state officials on Monday, according to the source.

“They are scheduled to be handed over to state authorities tomorrow,” the official told a news agency.

Regional reports also reported that the release of the students had been achieved, but did not provide specifics on whether it was done through dialogue or a security operation, or about the fate of the remaining individuals.

The freeing of the students was announced to the press by presidential spokesman Sunday Dare.

Reaction

“We've been praying and waiting for their return, if this is confirmed then it is positive news,” said a spokesman, spokesman for Bishop Bulus Yohanna of the religious authority which manages the school.

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

Security Situation

Though hostage-taking for cash are common in the country as a means for gangs and militants to fund their activities, in a wave of large-scale kidnappings in last month, many people were seized, casting an uncomfortable spotlight on Nigeria’s serious law and order crisis.

The country confronts a years-long jihadist insurgency in the north-east, while armed bandit gangs perpetrate abductions and loot villages in the northwestern region, and disputes between agricultural and pastoral communities over scarce farmland occur in the middle belt.

Additionally, militant factions associated with separatist movements also operate in the nation's unsettled southeastern region.

A Dark Legacy

One of the most prominent large-scale abductions that drew worldwide outrage was in 2014, when nearly three hundred schoolgirls were taken from their school in the northeastern town of Chibok by insurgents.

Now, the country's kidnap-for-ransom crisis has “become a organized, revenue-generating industry” that generated around a significant sum between July 2024 and June 2025, stated in a recent report by a Lagos-based consultancy.