A general view of empty bunk beds and scattered belongings inside a student dormitory at St. Marys Catholic School in Papiri, Agwarra local government, Niger state, on November 23, 2025. Fifty of the more than 300 children snatched by gunmen from a Catholic school in Nigeria have escaped their captors, a Christian group said in a statement on November 23. “We have received some good news as fifty pupils escaped and have reunited with their parents,” said the Christian Association of Nigeria in a statement, adding they escaped between November 21 and 22. Gunmen raided early November 21 St Mary’s co-education school in Niger state in western Nigeria, taking 303 children and 12 teachers in one of the largest mass kidnappings in Nigeria. (Photo by Ifeanyi Immanuel Bakwenye / AFP)
MINNA, Nigeria (AFP)—Around 100 schoolchildren kidnapped from a Catholic school in Nigeria last month were handed over to state officials Monday, AFP reporters saw.
The children — many wearing football jerseys and girls in long robes — were driven to the Niger State Government House in white buses escorted by a dozen military vans and armoured vehicles.
Some 50 escaped immediately afterward, but the fate of the 165 others from St. Mary’s thought to still be in captivity is still unclear.
The children handed over Monday will undergo medical checks before they are reunited with their parents, the governor added.
Bago shook hands with some of the children and led them into a hall where the an emir and local officials were seated to receive them.
It was unclear how the students’ release was secured.
– Kidnappers unknown –
According to a list of the released children seen by AFP, most of those freed are aged between 10 and 17 years. The school catered for children as young as nursery school age.
