This archive report was first published on 27 August 2021.
On August 26, 2021, the head teacher of an Islamic seminary in Niger State, Nigeria, confirmed that the remaining pupils from a mass kidnapping in May had been released.
Over 100 pupils were kidnapped from the seminary in Tegina on May 30, 2021, in one of a series of mass abductions targeting schools and colleges in Nigeria since December 2020.
"The pupils have all been released. We are now conveying them home," seminary head Abubakar Alhassan said by telephone.
Heavily armed criminals snatched 136 pupils from the seminary, and six of the pupils died in captivity, while 15 escaped in June.
Violence in northwest and central Nigeria has its roots in years-long tensions and tit-for-tat armed raids between farmers and nomadic herders over grazing land and water resources.
However, insecurity has worsened as criminal gangs emerged involved in cattle rustling, looting villages, and mass kidnapping.
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered military operations and air strikes on bandit camps, but attacks have not stopped.
