Kuriga Kidnap: Nigerian Pupils Taken In Mass Abduction Freed

Nigerian pupils taken by gunmen in a mass abduction in the north-western town of Kuriga earlier this month have been freed “unharmed”, officials say.

Kaduna state governor Uba Sani said they had been rescued thanks to the courage of the security forces.

The school authorities had said more than 280 children were taken, but the army said 137 hostages had been freed.

It said the operation took place in the early hours of Sunday morning, days before a ransom deadline.

Officials have not yet commented on the discrepancy in numbers.

In previous cases, hostages have been able to flee from their captors as they trek for days to forest hideouts.

A top government official, said that one of the teachers taken from Kuriga died in captivity. The group was held for 17 days in total.

Six mass abductions this month have rocked parts of northern Nigeria, despite an overall fall in the number of such attacks over the past year.

The kidnappers had demanded $690,000 (£548,000) for the release of the Kuriga children aged between eight and 15. The government had said it would not pay any ransom.

“This is indeed a day of joy,” Governor Sani said in a statement in which he praised Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu for ensuring that the abducted schoolchildren had been “released unharmed”.

Military spokesman Maj Gen Edward Buba said 76 girls and 61 boys had been rescued from Zamfara state, which borders Kaduna to the north-west.

The military has also released photos of some of the children, showing them sitting in buses looking dusty and exhausted.