- Written by Yusuf Akinpal
- BBC News, Lagos
image source, nigerian army
The students, some of whom were seen here after the liberation, were on school grounds when the gunmen moved in.
Nigerian students taken by gunmen in a mass kidnapping in the northwestern town of Kriga earlier this month have been released “unharmed”, officials have announced.
Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani said they were rescued thanks to the courage of security forces.
School authorities said more than 280 children had been taken, while the military said 137 hostages had been released.
The operation reportedly took place early Sunday morning, days before the ransom deadline.
Officials have not yet commented on the discrepancy in numbers.
In previous incidents, hostages were able to escape from their captors, traveling for days to hideouts in the forest.
A senior government official told BBC Hausa on condition of anonymity that one of the teachers taken from Kuriga died in captivity. This group was held for a total of 17 days.
A kidnapping group known as the Bandits has captured thousands of people in recent years, particularly in the northwest.
Six mass kidnappings have shaken parts of northern Nigeria this month, despite an overall decline in the number of such incidents over the past year.
Kidnapped people are usually released after a ransom is paid.
The kidnappers were demanding $690,000 (£548,000) for the release of the Kuliga children, aged between eight and 15. The government had said it would not pay a ransom.
“Today is truly a day of joy,” Governor Sani said in a statement, praising Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu for ensuring the “unharmed release” of the abducted schoolchildren.
Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Edward Buba said 76 girls and 61 boys were rescued from Kaduna and neighboring Zamfara state to the northwest.
The military also released photos of children sitting in buses, dusty and exhausted.
image source, nigerian army
Kidnappers were demanding $690,000 for the release of Kuliga's children (Photo on Sunday morning)
Security sources told Reuters the students were released in the forest and were being taken to Kaduna for medical tests before being allowed to meet their families.
The mass abduction occurred on the morning of March 7th during a gathering at a complex that houses a middle school and a high school.
According to witnesses, around 8:30 a.m. (7:30 p.m. Japan time), students were in an assembly hall when dozens of armed men on motorcycles burst into the area, eventually leaving the middle school. 187 people were taken, including 125 from local elementary schools. It is not clear how many teachers were abducted. Then 25 students returned.
One student, believed to be 14 years old, was shot and killed.
Most kidnappings in northwestern Nigeria are believed to be the work of criminal gangs seeking to collect ransom money.
In an attempt to rein in Nigeria's spiraling and lucrative kidnapping industry, a controversial law criminalizing the payment of ransom was passed in 2022. The law carries a sentence of at least 15 years in prison, but no one has been arrested so far.
The families of a group of sisters kidnapped in the capital Abuja earlier this year denied police claims that security forces rescued the girls, saying they had no choice but to pay the ransom.
When the Islamic militant group Boko Haram captured nearly 300 girls in the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok in 2014, it sparked global outrage.
Most of the victims have since been released or fled, but dozens remain missing.
On Saturday, the military announced it had rescued 17 students and a woman who were also kidnapped from a school in the northwestern city of Sokoto days after the Kuriga attack.
