Nigerian authorities have secured the release of 130 kidnapped schoolchildren taken by gunmen from a Catholic school in November, a presidential spokesman said on Sunday, after 100 were freed earlier this month.
“Another 130 abducted Niger state pupils released, none left in captivity,” Sunday Dare said in a post on social media.
In late November, hundreds of pupils and staff were kidnapped from St Mary’s boarding school in north-central Niger state though the exact number and whether all are free has been in dispute.
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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.
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A United Nations source told Agence France-Presse that “the remaining set of girls/secondary school students will be taken to Minna”, the capital of Niger state, on Tuesday.