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Nigerian authorities have ensured the liberation of a hundred kidnapped students captured by armed men from a Catholic school the previous month, according to a United Nations official and Nigerian press on Sunday. Nevertheless, the whereabouts of another 165 individuals believed to still be held captive stayed unclear.

Context

Last month, 315 students and staff were kidnapped from St Mary’s mixed residential school in central a Nigerian state, as the nation buckled under a wave of large-scale kidnappings echoing the well-known 2014 jihadist group kidnapping of female students in Chibok.

Approximately fifty got away shortly afterward, resulting in two hundred and sixty-five believed to be in captivity.

The Release

The 100 children are due to be released to local government officials this Monday, stated by the source.

“They are scheduled to be transferred to the government tomorrow,” the source informed a news agency.

Regional reports also stated that the release of 100 children had been achieved, though they lacked specifics on if it was achieved via negotiation or a security operation, and no details on the fate of the still-missing individuals.

The freeing of the youngsters was confirmed to the press by a government spokesperson Sunday Dare.

Statements

“We've been anxiously awaiting for their return, should this be accurate then it is positive development,” said a spokesman, speaking for the local diocese of the religious authority which manages the school.

“However, we are not formally informed and have not received proper notification by the government.”

Wider Crisis

While kidnappings for ransom are prevalent in the nation as a way for criminals and armed groups to generate revenue, in a wave of mass abductions in last month, scores of individuals were abducted, casting an harsh spotlight on the country's deteriorating state of safety.

The country confronts a protracted Islamist militant uprising in the north-east, while marauding gangs perpetrate abductions and raid villages in the north-west, and disputes between agricultural and pastoral communities concerning dwindling farmland persist in the country’s centre.

Furthermore, armed groups associated with secessionist agendas also are active in the nation's restive southeastern region.

The Chibok Shadow

A earliest mass kidnappings that attracted global concern was in 2014, when almost 300 female students were taken from their school in the northeastern town of Chibok by Boko Haram jihadists.

Now, the country's hostage-taking problem has “become a structured, revenue-generating business” that raised approximately a significant sum between last year, stated in a study by a Nigerian research firm.