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Nigerian authorities have obtained the freedom of one hundred abducted students seized by attackers from a Catholic school in November, per reports from a source within the UN and local media on Sunday. Yet, the situation of an additional 165 individuals believed to still be under the control of kidnappers remained unclear.

The Incident

Last month, three hundred and fifteen students and staff were abducted from St Mary’s mixed residential school in north-central a Nigerian state, as the country was gripped by a wave of mass abductions similar to the notorious 2014 Boko Haram kidnapping of female students in Chibok.

Approximately 50 got away shortly afterward, leaving 265 believed to be under kidnappers' control.

The Handover

The a hundred children are scheduled to be transferred to local government officials on Monday, as per the UN official.

“They are scheduled to be released to the government on Monday,” the individual told AFP.

Regional reports also stated that the freeing of the students had been secured, though they lacked information on if it was done through talks or armed intervention, and no details on the whereabouts of the other students and staff.

The freeing of the youngsters was announced to AFP by presidential spokesman an official.

Response

“We've been praying and waiting for their safe arrival, if it is true then it is wonderful news,” said a spokesman, speaking for Bishop Bulus Yohanna of the Kontagora diocese which manages the institution.

“Yet, we are not formally informed and have not been duly notified by the government.”

Broader Context

Though hostage-taking for cash are widespread in the nation as a method for criminals and armed groups to fund their activities, in a spate of large-scale kidnappings in November, hundreds were abducted, casting an harsh focus on the country's serious security situation.

The country confronts a protracted Islamist militant uprising in the north-east, while marauding gangs perpetrate abductions and plunder villages in the north-west, and clashes between agricultural and pastoral communities concerning scarce farmland persist in the central belt.

On a smaller scale, militant factions connected to secessionist agendas also haunt the nation's unsettled south-east.

The Chibok Shadow

Among the earliest mass kidnappings that garnered worldwide outrage was in 2014, when nearly three hundred girls were taken from their school in the northeastern town of Chibok by the militant group.

A decade later, Nigeria’s hostage-taking crisis has “consolidated into a structured, revenue-generating enterprise” that collected about a significant sum between last year, according to a analysis by a Lagos-based consultancy.