🔗 Share this article Freedom Obtained for 100 Kidnapped Nigerian Students, yet Numerous Continue to Be Held The country's government have ensured the liberation of 100 abducted pupils seized by attackers from a Catholic school in November, per reports from a source within the UN and regional news outlets this past Sunday. Yet, the situation of an additional 165 individuals believed to continue being in captivity remained unknown. Context Last month, 315 people were taken from St Mary’s mixed boarding school in north-central a Nigerian state, as the country faced a wave of group seizures echoing the well-known 2014 Boko Haram kidnapping of female students in a town in north-east Nigeria. Some fifty got away soon after, resulting in 265 presumed still held. The Release The one hundred students are scheduled to be handed over to state authorities this Monday, as per the source. “They will be transferred to Niger state government on Monday,” the individual told AFP. Regional reports also confirmed that the liberation of the hostages had been achieved, without offering specifics on if it was done through talks or a security operation, and no details on the whereabouts of the remaining individuals. The liberation of the students was confirmed to the press by a government spokesperson Sunday Dare. Reaction “For a long time we were anxiously awaiting for their release, if this is confirmed then it is a cheering development,” said a representative, spokesman for Bishop Bulus Yohanna of the religious authority which manages the school. “Yet, we are without official confirmation and have not been duly notified by the federal government.” Wider Crisis Although hostage-taking for cash are widespread in the nation as a means for gangs and militants to generate revenue, in a wave of large-scale kidnappings in November, hundreds were seized, casting an uncomfortable focus on the country's serious security situation. The nation is grappling with a years-long jihadist insurgency in the north-east, while criminal groups conduct kidnappings and loot villages in the north-west, and disputes between agricultural and pastoral communities regarding scarce land and resources occur in the central belt. Furthermore, militant factions associated with secessionist agendas also operate in the country’s restive south-east. A Dark Legacy A first mass kidnappings that drew international attention was in 2014, when almost three hundred girls were abducted from their school in the northeastern town of Chibok by the militant group. Ten years on, Nigeria’s hostage-taking crisis has “evolved into a organized, revenue-generating enterprise” that generated around $1.66 million dollars (£1.24m) between last year, as per a recent report by a Lagos-based research firm.