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Officials in Nigeria have ensured the liberation of a hundred seized pupils captured by attackers from a Catholic school the previous month, as stated by a United Nations official and regional news outlets on Sunday. Yet, the situation of a further one hundred and sixty-five students and staff believed to remain held captive remained unclear.

Context

Last month, three hundred and fifteen individuals were abducted from St Mary’s co-educational residential school in central a Nigerian state, as the nation buckled under a surge of mass abductions echoing the notorious 2014 jihadist group abduction of female students in a town in north-east Nigeria.

Around fifty managed to flee in the immediate aftermath, which left two hundred and sixty-five believed to be still held.

Freedom for Some

The 100 students are due to be handed over to local government officials this Monday, as per the UN official.

“They will be handed over to Niger state government tomorrow,” the individual told a news agency.

News outlets also stated that the freeing of the hostages had been achieved, without offering specifics on if it was done through negotiation or military force, nor on the situation of the other students and staff.

The release of the students was confirmed to AFP by presidential spokesman Sunday Dare.

Response

“We have been anxiously awaiting for their return, if this is confirmed then it is wonderful event,” said a representative, speaking for Bishop Bulus Yohanna of the Kontagora diocese which operates the institution.

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

Broader Context

Though kidnappings for ransom are widespread in the nation as a means for criminals and armed groups to fund their activities, in a series of large-scale kidnappings in last month, hundreds were seized, placing an uncomfortable attention on Nigeria’s already grim law and order crisis.

The nation faces a protracted Islamist militant uprising in the north-east, while criminal groups carry out abductions and loot villages in the northwestern region, and conflicts between agricultural and pastoral communities concerning dwindling farmland occur in the middle belt.

Furthermore, militant factions linked to separatist movements also are active in the country’s volatile south-east.

A Dark Legacy

A earliest mass kidnappings that attracted worldwide outrage was in 2014, when nearly three hundred girls were snatched from their school in the north-eastern town of Chibok by the militant group.

Ten years on, the country's kidnap-for-ransom issue has “become a structured, revenue-generating business” that raised approximately a significant sum between last year, stated in a analysis by a Nigerian consultancy.