Niger Gov receives 100 freed pupils after two weeks in captivity

About 100 pupils kidnapped from St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State, last month have been formally received by Governor Umaru Bago, barely a day after the federal government secured their release.

The children — many clad in football jerseys and the girls in long flowing gowns — arrived at the Government House in Minna on Monday afternoon. They were transported in white buses and escorted by a heavy convoy of military trucks and armoured vehicles, underscoring the scale of the operation that brought them home.

The pupils were among the 315 students and staff abducted during a midnight raid on the school two weeks ago. While 50 escaped in the immediate aftermath, dozens more remain unaccounted for.

“Welcome,” Governor Bago said as he personally greeted some of the exhausted children before leading them into a hall where the emir, community leaders and top government officials were waiting.

A list of the released pupils sighted by AFP shows that most of the children are between 10 and 17 years old, although the school also accommodates nursery-age pupils.

It still remains unclear which criminal group carried out the operation or the exact conditions under which the 100 were freed.

Kidnapping for ransom has long been a major security challenge in northern Nigeria, but a wave of mass abductions in November has once again exposed the country’s fragile security architecture and the vulnerability of rural schools.