'No pupils left in captivity' after authorities secure release of 130

NIGERIAN authorities have secured the release of 130 kidnapped schoolchildren taken by gunmen from a Catholic school in November, a presidential spokesman said at the weekend, after 100 were freed earlier this month.

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"Another 130 abducted Niger state pupils released, none left in captivity," Sunday Dare said in a post on X.

In late November, hundreds of students and staff were kidnapped from St Mary's coeducational boarding school in north-central Niger state.

The attack came as the country buckled under a wave of mass abductions reminiscent of the infamous 2014 Boko Haram kidnapping of schoolgirls in the town of Chibok.

The west African country suffers from multiple interlinked security concerns, from jihadists in the northeast to armed "bandit" gangs in the northwest.

The exact number taken from St Mary's has been unclear throughout the ordeal. Initially, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said 315 students and staff were unaccounted for after the attack in the rural hamlet of Papiri.