More than two weeks after being seized from a school in the northwest state of Kaduna, about 300 abducted Nigerian school children have been set free.
Following the 2014 abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls from the Chibok village in Borno state by Boko Haram extremists, at least 1,400 children have been abducted from Nigerian schools. The country’s northwest and central regions have seen a concentration of kidnappings in recent years; in these areas, dozens of armed groups frequently target travellers and residents for ransom.
Governor of Kaduna state, Uba Sani withheld information regarding the release of the students, at least 100 of them were 12 years of age or younger, who were kidnapped from their school in the isolated hamlet of Kuriga on March 7.
Last week, the gunmen requested a ransom of 1 billion naira (equivalent to USD 620,000) and warned that they would harm all the students if their demands were not satisfied, as reported by a member of the local community. Kaduna state, located near the Nigerian capital Abuja to the southwest, has been dealing with frequent cases of kidnappings for ransom by bandits and has experienced numerous large-scale abductions in the past few years.
