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Nigerian authorities have secured the release of a hundred kidnapped students seized by gunmen from a Catholic school the previous month, per reports from a UN source and local media this past Sunday. Yet, the fate of another 165 students and staff believed to still be under the control of kidnappers remained unknown.

Background

During November, 315 people were kidnapped from a co-educational boarding school in north-central Niger state, as the country was gripped by a wave of mass abductions reminiscent of the well-known 2014 jihadist group kidnapping of schoolgirls in Chibok.

Some 50 got away in the immediate aftermath, leaving two hundred and sixty-five thought to be in captivity.

Freedom for Some

The a hundred students are scheduled to be transferred to state authorities this Monday, according to the UN official.

“They are going to be released to Niger state government tomorrow,” the source stated to AFP.

Regional reports also confirmed that the freeing of the students had been secured, without offering information on whether it was achieved via dialogue or armed intervention, and no details on the whereabouts of the remaining students and staff.

The freeing of the students was verified to AFP by an official representative an official.

Response

“We have been praying and waiting for their return, if this is confirmed then it is positive development,” said a representative, speaking for the local diocese of the Kontagora diocese which runs the school.

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

Wider Crisis

Though abductions for money are prevalent in the country as a method for gangs and militants to make quick cash, in a series of large-scale kidnappings in November, scores of individuals were taken, putting an harsh attention on the country's serious security situation.

The country faces a protracted Islamist militant uprising in the northeastern region, while criminal groups perpetrate abductions and plunder communities in the north-west, and clashes between agricultural and pastoral communities over dwindling resources occur in the middle belt.

Furthermore, militant factions associated with separatist movements also haunt the nation's volatile southeastern region.

A Dark Legacy

A first large-scale abductions that drew global concern was in 2014, when almost three hundred girls were taken from their school in the north-eastern town of Chibok by insurgents.

A decade later, Nigeria’s hostage-taking problem has “evolved into a organized, revenue-generating business” that generated around a significant sum between last year, as per a study by a Lagos-based research firm.