Remaining 130 abducted Nigerian students have been released, president's spokesman says

The students are among more than 300 pupils seized by gunmen from St Mary's Catholic boarding school

A combination of undated handout images obtained by Reuters on Nov 23, 2025, following reports of a kidnapping of more than 300 children and staff from St. Mary's School, in Papiri, Niger state, Nigeria, on Nov 21, 2025, shows bunk beds in a dormitory and left-behind clothes and other belongings at the Catholic school's Social Communications Department/Catholic Diocese of Kontagora/Handout via REUTERS

The remaining 130 Nigerian schoolchildren abducted in November from a Catholic school in Niger state have been released, President Bola Tinubu's spokesperson said on Sunday, following one of the country's biggest mass kidnappings of recent years.

"The remaining 130 schoolchildren abducted by terrorists...have now been released. They are expected to arrive in Minna on Monday and rejoin their parents for the Christmas celebration," Bayo Onanuga said in a post on X.

"The freedom of the schoolchildren followed a military-intelligence driven operation."

The students are among more than 300 pupils and 12 staff seized by gunmen from St Mary's Catholic boarding school in Papiri village in the early hours of Nov 21.

Fifty of the children managed to escape at the time, the Christian Association of Nigeria has previously said, while Nigeria's government said on Dec 8 that it had managed to rescue 100 of those abducted.

Onanuga said the total of freed students is now 230.

The abduction caused outrage over worsening insecurity in northern Nigeria, where armed gangs frequently target schools for ransom. School kidnappings surged after Boko Haram militants abducted 276 girls from Chibok in 2014.