A group of 24 Nigerian schoolgirls abducted over a week ago in Kebbi State have been released, according to President Bola Tinubu. Armed attackers stormed their boarding school on 17 November, killing two staff members and kidnapping 25 students. One girl escaped shortly after the incident.
President Tinubu commended security forces for what he described as a swift and determined response, though the circumstances of the girls’ release remain unclear. A presidential adviser, Bayo Onanuga, confirmed that all kidnapped students from the Kebbi attack have now been accounted for, warning that the assault had sparked a series of copycat kidnappings.
The release comes during one of Nigeria’s most troubling waves of mass abductions in recent years. More than 250 children taken last Friday from a Catholic boarding school in Niger State remain missing, according to school officials. The incident has been described as one of the largest mass kidnappings in the country’s history, though officials have questioned the accuracy of the school’s reported numbers.
Niger State governor Umar Bago said that 11 of the St. Mary’s pupils had been rescued from a remote farm settlement, but he declined to offer further details. He also pushed back against claims that 300 people had been abducted, saying the figures lacked verified documentation. The state’s police commissioner expressed similar doubts.
Bishop Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, the head of the Christian Association of Nigeria (Can) in Niger State and the overseer of St. Mary’s school, criticized the government’s response, accusing authorities of failing to make meaningful progress in locating the missing children.
The recent wave of abductions forced President Tinubu to cancel his planned trip to the G20 summit in South Africa as the crisis escalated. In another incident the same week, dozens of worshippers kidnapped from a church in Kwara State were later freed.
International figures have voiced concern. UN education envoy Gordon Brown urged global partners to aid efforts to recover the abducted children and help secure Nigerian schools. He emphasized the need to ensure classrooms remain places of safety rather than targets for criminal activity.
Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened military action, accusing Nigerian authorities of failing to protect Christian communities from Islamist militants. Nigerian officials rejected the claim as a gross distortion, noting that recent school abductions have targeted Muslim students as well, and that extremist groups attack anyone who resists their ideology.
More than 1,500 children have been kidnapped from Nigerian schools since 2014, when the notorious abduction of 276 girls from Chibok shocked the world. Criminal gangs—locally known as bandits—continue to hold communities hostage across several northern regions, while jihadist groups persist in a violent insurgency that has lasted more than a decade.