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Nigerian authorities have obtained the freedom of a hundred abducted schoolchildren seized by gunmen from a Catholic school in November, according to a United Nations official and local media on Sunday. Yet, the situation of an additional one hundred and sixty-five hostages presumed to continue being held captive stayed unclear.

The Incident

In November, 315 students and staff were taken from St Mary’s co-educational residential school in north-central a Nigerian state, as the country was gripped by a series of large-scale kidnappings similar to the notorious 2014 jihadist group kidnapping of schoolgirls in a town in north-east Nigeria.

Approximately fifty got away shortly afterward, leaving 265 believed to be still held.

The Release

The one hundred youngsters are due to be released to state authorities on Monday, as per the source.

“They are scheduled to be released to state authorities on Monday,” the source told AFP.

Local media also stated that the liberation of the students had been obtained, though they lacked details on whether it was done through dialogue or a security operation, nor on the fate of the still-missing hostages.

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

Statements

“For a long time we were praying and waiting for their return, if it is true then it is positive development,” said a spokesman, speaking for Bishop Bulus Yohanna of the Kontagora diocese which operates the school.

“Nevertheless, we are without official confirmation and have not received proper notification by the government.”

Wider Crisis

Though kidnappings for ransom are widespread in the country as a means for illegal actors to fund their activities, in a series of mass abductions in last month, scores of individuals were abducted, casting an uncomfortable attention on the country's serious security situation.

The nation confronts a long-running jihadist insurgency in the north-east, while criminal groups carry out kidnappings and raid communities in the north-west, and clashes between agricultural and pastoral communities concerning diminishing land and resources continue in the country’s centre.

On a smaller scale, militant factions associated with secessionist agendas also operate in the nation's unsettled southeastern region.

The Chibok Shadow

Among the first large-scale abductions that attracted international attention was in 2014, when nearly three hundred female students were abducted from their school in the northeastern town of Chibok by Boko Haram jihadists.

Ten years on, Nigeria’s kidnap-for-ransom crisis has “become a organized, revenue-generating industry” that generated approximately a significant sum between a recent twelve-month period, as per a analysis by a Nigerian consultancy.