ABUJA — Nigerian authorities announced on Sunday the release of 100 schoolchildren abducted in a brazen mass kidnapping from a Catholic boarding school last month, offering a glimmer of hope to anguished families but leaving the fate of 165 others in grim uncertainty. The freed minors, aged between 10 and 18, arrived in the capital Abuja under heavy security escort and are undergoing medical evaluations before being handed over to Niger state officials on Monday, according to a United Nations source speaking to AFP. Presidential spokesman Sunday Dare confirmed the development, calling it “cheering news” after weeks of fervent prayers and negotiations.
The partial rescue stems from the November 21, 2025, attack on St. Mary’s Private Catholic Primary and Secondary School in Papiri, a remote community in Niger state’s Agwara district, where gunmen stormed the premises around 2 a.m., herding students from dormitories onto motorcycles and trucks. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) initially reported 303 students and 12 teachers abducted — 315 total — surpassing the scale of the infamous 2014 Chibok kidnapping by Boko Haram, where 276 girls were seized. Approximately 50 victims escaped in the chaotic aftermath by fleeing into nearby forests, reducing the captive count to 265 before this weekend’s breakthrough.
Details on the release remain sparse. Local media, including Channels Television, reported the children’s arrival in Abuja but provided no clarity on whether the operation involved ransom payments, military raids, or diplomatic backchannels — common in Nigeria’s protracted hostage crises. Daniel Atori, spokesman for Bishop Bulus Yohanna of the Kontagora diocese, which oversees the school, expressed cautious optimism: “We have been praying and waiting for their return. If it is true, then it is cheering news. However, we are not officially aware and have not been duly notified by the federal government.” The UN source, speaking anonymously, confirmed the handover timeline, noting the children appeared “traumatized but physically stable” after weeks in captivity.
The St. Mary’s assault unfolded amid a ferocious November wave of abductions that exposed Nigeria’s deepening security fissures. Just days earlier, on November 18, gunmen raided the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi state — 170 kilometers northwest — abducting 25 Muslim schoolgirls and killing the vice principal, in the first major school attack since March 2024’s Kuriga incident in Kaduna. By November 25, 24 of those girls were freed following negotiations, though one remains missing, per President Bola Tinubu’s office. Further south, on November 19, assailants stormed Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku, Kwara state, killing two worshippers and kidnapping 38 congregants, including the pastor, in a raid that left pews bloodied and Bibles scattered.
November’s tally soared: at least 402 abductions across Niger, Kebbi, Kwara, and Borno states since November 17, per the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), including farmers, bridesmaids at a wedding in Zamfara, and villagers in Sokoto. No group has claimed the St. Mary’s attack, but analysts attribute it to “bandit” gangs — armed militias exploiting ungoverned forests for ransom, a trade netting $1.66 million from July 2024 to June 2025, according to SBM Intelligence. These syndicates, often Fulani herders turned criminals, operate in northwest and central belts where state presence is minimal, blending profit motives with ethnic and resource clashes.
The kidnappings reverberated internationally, amplifying U.S. President Donald Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric. In early November, Trump labeled the violence a “Christian genocide,” threatening “guns-a-blazing” military intervention and ordering the Pentagon — rechristened the “Department of War” under Secretary Pete Hegseth — to prepare “fast, vicious” options, including drone strikes. Speaking on Fox News, he decried Nigeria as a “disgrace” for allowing “thousands” of Christian deaths, echoing claims from Senator Ted Cruz’s Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act and celebrities like Nicki Minaj and Bill Maher. Hegseth, meeting Nigeria’s National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu on November 20, reiterated the alarm, posting on X: “Either the Nigerian Government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic Terrorists.”
Abuja rebuffed the narrative as “misrepresentation,” with Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar insisting, “There is no Christian genocide in Nigeria.” President Tinubu, a Muslim leading a religiously diverse nation of 230 million, highlighted constitutional safeguards for all faiths, noting violence claims both Christians and Muslims — over 53,000 civilian deaths in political attacks since 2009, per the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). Independent experts, including Human Rights Watch, concur: while jihadists like Boko Haram and ISWAP have killed over 100,000 since 2009, Muslims suffer equally in farmer-herder clashes and banditry. Tinubu canceled trips to the G20 and EU-AU summits to focus on the crisis, deploying tactical squads and local hunters to scour forests.
Nigeria’s insecurity is multifaceted: a northeast insurgency by Boko Haram and ISWAP has displaced 2.2 million since 2009, while northwest bandits loot villages and extort ransoms, fueling a $1.66 million “industry.” Central belt farmer-herder disputes, exacerbated by climate change and arms proliferation — Nigerian troops allegedly sell weapons to gangs — claim thousands annually. Schools, symbols of vulnerability, have been hit repeatedly: 1,400 students abducted since 2014, per Al Jazeera tallies. In response, Niger state shuttered all schools until 2026, joining 47 federal unity colleges nationwide, per UNESCO’s Safe Schools Declaration — ratified by Nigeria in 2015 but poorly implemented.
The UN’s Amina Mohammed decried schools as “sanctuaries, not targets,” urging accountability. Human Rights Watch called for early warning systems, criticizing closures for denying education to 20 million northern children already out of school. As the freed children reunite — scarred by trauma, per UNICEF — the remaining 165, including all 12 teachers, endure captivity in bandit strongholds. Families like that of 13-year-old escapee Aisha, who told Reuters of “dark nights in the bush,” plead for swift action.
On X, #FreeStMarysChildren trended with 1.5 million posts, blending parental anguish — “My son is only 11, please bring him home” — and geopolitical barbs — “Trump’s threats won’t fix Tinubu’s failures.” As Abuja fortifies “Operation Safe Corridor” with U.S. intelligence — despite tensions — the partial victory underscores a harsh reality: in Nigeria’s shadow war, rescues are incremental, but the bandit economy thrives. For the 165 still held, hope flickers amid forests that swallow cries, a stark reminder that security’s deficit devours futures.
