Nigeria has successfully freed hundreds of kidnapped students

130 students were successfully released. (Twitter/@SundayDareSD)

JAKARTA - Nigerian authorities on Sunday announced the successful release of 130 students kidnapped from a Catholic boarding school in Niger State last month, after previously successfully releasing 100 other students earlier this month.

"Another 130 Niger state students who were abducted have been released, none are still in detention," presidential spokesman Sunday Dare said in a post on X, accompanied by photos of smiling children, as reported by Daily Sabah from AFP (22/12).

Previously, hundreds of students and staff were kidnapped from the St. Mary's boarding school in Niger State, located in the north-center of the country in late November.

The attack comes as the country is reeling from a wave of mass kidnappings that recall the abduction of schoolgirls by Boko Haram in 2014 in Chibok.

The West African country suffers from a range of interrelated security problems, from jihadist groups in the northeast to armed "bandits" gangs in the northwest.

A UN source told AFP, "the remaining secondary school students will be taken to Minna", the capital of Niger State, on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the exact number of kidnapping victims, and those still in captivity, has not been clear since the attack on the school, which is located in the rural village of Papiri. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said 315 students and staff were abducted.

Around 50 people managed to escape immediately afterwards, and on December 7 the government managed to free around 100 people.

That means about 165 people are estimated to still be in custody.

However, a statement from President Bola Tinubu at the time said the number of people still in custody was 115.

To date, it has not been announced who abducted the children from their boarding school, or how the government managed to free them.

Although kidnappings for ransom are a common way for criminals and armed groups to get quick cash, a series of mass kidnappings in November highlighted Nigeria's already grim security situation.

Attackers across the country kidnapped two dozen Muslim schoolgirls, 38 churchgoers, and a bride and her entourage, with farmers, women, and children also taken hostage.

The kidnapping comes as Nigeria faces a diplomatic offensive from the United States, where President Donald Trump has accused it of mass killings of Christians amounting to "genocide".

The Nigerian government and independent analysts reject the framework, which has long been used by right-wing Christian groups in the United States and Europe.

The religiously diverse African country of 230 million people is home to various conflicts that have killed both Christians and Muslims.