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The country's government have obtained the freedom of a hundred abducted pupils seized by attackers from a educational institution last month, as stated by a United Nations official and local media on Sunday. However, the fate of an additional one hundred and sixty-five hostages thought to still be in captivity stayed uncertain.

The Incident

During November, three hundred and fifteen students and staff were kidnapped from St Mary’s co-educational residential school in north-central a Nigerian state, as the nation faced a wave of group seizures echoing the infamous 2014 jihadist group abduction of female students in a town in north-east Nigeria.

Some fifty escaped shortly afterward, which left two hundred and sixty-five believed to be in captivity.

The Handover

The 100 children are due to be handed over to Niger state officials on Monday, as per the United Nations source.

“They are scheduled to be handed over to Niger state government on Monday,” the official stated to AFP.

Local media also reported that the liberation of 100 children had been obtained, but did not provide information on whether it was achieved via talks or armed intervention, or about the situation of the still-missing students and staff.

The release of the students was verified to AFP by an official representative Sunday Dare.

Response

“For a long time we were anxiously awaiting for their safe arrival, should this be accurate then it is wonderful development,” said Daniel Atori, spokesman for Bishop Bulus Yohanna of the religious authority which manages the school.

“However, we are not formally informed and have not been duly notified by the government.”

Wider Crisis

Although hostage-taking for cash are prevalent in the country as a means for gangs and militants to generate revenue, in a series of large-scale kidnappings in last month, many people were abducted, casting an harsh attention on Nigeria’s deteriorating state of safety.

The country confronts a long-running Islamist militant uprising in the north-east, while marauding gangs carry out kidnappings and plunder villages in the northwestern region, and disputes between farmers and herders over dwindling farmland continue in the central belt.

Furthermore, armed groups connected to secessionist agendas also operate in the nation's unsettled south-east.

A Dark Legacy

Among the first large-scale abductions that drew worldwide outrage was in 2014, when nearly three hundred female students were taken from their boarding school in the northeastern town of Chibok by the militant group.

Ten years on, Nigeria’s kidnap-for-ransom problem has “become a systematic, profit-seeking enterprise” that raised about a significant sum between a recent twelve-month period, stated in a analysis by a Lagos-based consultancy.