Nigerians welcome schoolchildren, teachers released after mass abduction
Freed students pose for photographs upon their arrival at the government house in Minna. (AP: Sunday Alamba)
In short:
Nigerians have had their first look at 130 children and teachers freed after being seized in one of the largest mass abductions in the country's history.
Some of the children appeared to be malnourished or in shock as they arrived at a government ceremony.
What's next?
A national coordinator at Nigeria's Centre for Counterterrorism says the country will work with community leaders to boost safety in high-risk areas.
Nigerians have had their first look at 130 children and teachers released on Monday after being seized in one of the largest mass abductions in the country's history.
Some of the children appeared to be malnourished or in shock as they arrived at a government ceremony.
Some of the children appeared to be malnourished or in shock. (AP: Sunday Alamba)
Police said the children and teachers were freed on Sunday, a month after gunmen stormed their Catholic school in Niger state's Papiri community in a pre-dawn attack.
Authorities said plans were underway to reunite the children with their families before Christmas.
Authorities earlier said 303 schoolchildren and 12 teachers were seized, and 50 of them escaped in the hours that followed.
But on Monday, Niger state Governor Mohammed Bago indicated that 230 had been taken and that all had now been released.
School kidnappings have come to define insecurity in Africa's most populous country.
Officials did not say whether a ransom — common in such abductions — had been paid.
No group has claimed responsibility, but residents blamed armed gangs that target schools and travellers in kidnappings for ransom across Nigeria's conflict-battered north.
Most of those seized in the attack were aged between 10 and 17, the school said.
A freed teacher from the Catholic School is at the government house in Minna. (AP: Sunday Alamba)
One of the children released earlier told reporters that gunmen threatened to shoot them during the attack.
Major General Adamu Garba Laka, national coordinator at Nigeria's Centre for Counter Terrorism, said at Monday's event that Nigeria will work with community leaders to boost safety in high-risk areas.
AP