Overview
- UN sources and local media report the freed group reached the capital and are to be handed over to Niger state representatives.
- Roughly 165 pupils and staff are still held after an initial escape of about 50 shortly after the abduction.
- The mass abduction targeted St. Mary's boarding school in Papiri at the end of November.
- Authorities have not confirmed whether the latest group was released by kidnappers or rescued by security forces.
- The incident fits a pattern of ransom kidnappings by armed gangs based in forest areas across northwest and central Nigeria and echoes the 2014 Chibok case.