Horror Kidnapping In Nigeria, 50 Students Managed To Escape

UNSPLASH/Jose P. Ortiz ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - A total of 50 students from 303 school children who were kidnapped from a Catholic school in Niger state, Nigeria managed to escape from the hands of the kidnappers. They have now gathered with their families.

Schoolchildren, aged between 10 and 18, fled one by one between Friday and Saturday, according to Pastor Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, chairman of the Nigerian Christian Association in Niger state. Yohanna, who is also the principal, said 253 school children and 12 teachers were still being held by kidnappers.

"We can confirm this when we decide to contact and visit some parents," Yohanna said as quoted by ABC News, Monday, November 24.

Students and students were kidnapped along with their teachers by gunmen attacking St. Mary, a Catholic institution in the remote Papiri community in the state of Niger, on Friday.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and authorities say a tactical team has been deployed with local hunters to save the children.

It was not immediately known where the children were detained or how they could return home.