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Officials in Nigeria have ensured the liberation of 100 abducted schoolchildren captured by gunmen from a Catholic school last month, per reports from a United Nations official and Nigerian press this past Sunday. Nevertheless, the whereabouts of an additional 165 hostages presumed to still be under the control of kidnappers was unknown.

The Incident

Last month, 315 individuals were kidnapped from St Mary’s co-educational boarding school in north-central a Nigerian state, as the nation buckled under a wave of mass abductions echoing the notorious 2014 jihadist group kidnapping of schoolgirls in Chibok.

Around fifty managed to flee soon after, resulting in 265 thought to be still held.

The Handover

The a hundred children are set to be released to local government officials this Monday, stated by the source.

“They are going to be released to the government tomorrow,” the source told AFP.

Regional reports also confirmed that the freeing of the students had been achieved, but did not provide details on if it was the result of talks or military force, or about the situation of the still-missing students and staff.

The liberation of the youngsters was verified to the press by an official representative Sunday Dare.

Reaction

“For a long time we were anxiously awaiting for their return, should this be accurate then it is wonderful development,” said a spokesman, representing Bishop Bulus Yohanna of the religious authority which manages the school.

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

Wider Crisis

Although hostage-taking for cash are prevalent in the nation as a means for illegal actors to generate revenue, in a wave of mass abductions in last month, many people were seized, putting an uncomfortable spotlight on Nigeria’s deteriorating law and order crisis.

The country is grappling with a protracted Islamist militant uprising in the north-east, while criminal groups perpetrate kidnappings and plunder villages in the north-west, and conflicts between farmers and herders over scarce farmland continue in the middle belt.

On a smaller scale, militant factions linked to separatist movements also are active in the country’s unsettled southeastern region.

Historical Precedent

Among the most prominent large-scale abductions 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 insurgents.

A decade later, Nigeria’s kidnap-for-ransom crisis has “become a organized, revenue-generating enterprise” that collected around $1.66 million dollars (£1.24m) between a recent twelve-month period, according to a analysis by a Nigerian research firm.