Church leaders and local officials have confirmed that all schoolchildren and teachers taken in a mass abduction from a school in Niger State, Nigeria, have been released.
It was announced on 22 December that around 130 pupils and staff had been released.
Up to 300 were taken from St Mary’s Papiri Private Secondary School, Papiri, in Agwara Local Government Area, in the early hours of 21 November.
Some of the children released from captivity [Image credit: Special Adviser Information and Strategy to President Tinubu]
About 50 escaped in the hours following the kidnapping, while more than 100 were released on 8 December.
“We thank God for the release of the remaining abducted children and staff,” read a statement published by the school. “Thank you for your prayers, encouragement and efforts. May God grant lasting peace and security to our country and to the world at large.”
On the night of the abduction, witnesses saw gunmen on motorbikes herding the children away. It remains unconfirmed whether the kidnappers were Islamist terrorists or another armed criminal gang.
The scale of the abduction exceeds that of the kidnapping of 276 girls from a boarding school in Chibok, Borno State, in April 2014 by Islamist extremists. Around 160 of the girls subsequently escaped, were rescued or released. The rest are either still being held, have died in captivity, or are otherwise unaccounted for.
How you can pray
Thank the Lord for the release of these children and their teachers. Ask that all will recover well from the trauma that they have experienced. Pray for greater stability and security in northern and Middle Belt Nigeria, for Christians and others affected by Islamist terrorism and violent crime.
