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According to the authorities, 344 students kidnapped in northwestern Nigeria have been released. “We thank God they were released,” Ibrahim Katsina, a security adviser to the governor of Katsina state, told AFP.
An aide to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari had previously announced on Twitter that the students had been “rescued.” It is not yet clear if all the students were released. From security circles it was said that some of the children were still in the hands of the kidnappers.
Last Friday students from a boys’ secondary school north of Kankara city in Katsina state were abducted. The Islamist group Boko Haram later claimed the act for itself. The exact number of missing was unclear. The authorities spoke of 333 abducted students and the inhabitants of Kankara of more than 500.
The attack took place hundreds of kilometers from the real action area of Boko Haram and recalls the abduction of hundreds of school children in Chibok in 2014. Boko Haram is generally found in the northeast of the country around Lake Chad.
Boko Haram has been fighting violently for the establishment of an Islamic state of God in the predominantly Muslim northeast of Nigeria since 2009. The jihadist group has committed numerous atrocities in recent weeks.
