All abducted pupils released after mass kidnapping at Catholic school in Nigeria

All pupils abducted from a Catholic school in north-central Nigeria have been released from captivity, according to a senior government official.

The release was announced on Sunday by Sunday Dare, a spokesperson for Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, who said another 130 abducted pupils from Niger State had been freed and that no children remain in captivity.

The pupils were taken during a mass abduction at St. Mary’s Private Catholic Primary and Secondary School in Papiri, a rural community in Niger State, according to local media reports. Authorities did not release details about how the pupils were freed or the circumstances of their release.

About two weeks earlier, Nigerian media reported that roughly 100 of the more than 300 abducted children and school staff had been released. TVC News Nigeria said at the time that authorities had secured the release of those pupils.

The mass kidnapping occurred in late November, when armed men abducted around 315 pupils, staff members, and relatives from the school. Fifty pupils later escaped and returned home, according to local reports.

Niger State is a predominantly rural region in north-central Nigeria, located several hundred miles north of the country’s southern coastline and far from major cities such as Lagos and Port Harcourt. Authorities have not publicly identified the group responsible for the abduction.