Dozens of abducted school group freed as hunt goes on for 317 kidnapped girls

FORTY-TWO people, including 27 students who were abducted two weeks ago from a school in northern Nigeria have been freed, an official has said.

The chief press secretary for the Niger state governor, Mary Noel-berje, said those released have arrived in the state capital, Minna.

The students, teachers and family members were abducted from the Government Science College Kagara by gunmen.

Their release was announced a day after police said gunmen had abducted 317 girls from a boarding school elsewhere in northern Nigeria, in Zamfara state.

One resident said the gunmen also attacked a nearby military camp and checkpoint, preventing soldiers from interfering with the mass abduction.

Several large groups of armed men operate in Zamfara state, described by the government as bandits, and are known to kidnap for cash and for their members to be freed from jail.

Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari said the government’s primary objective is to get all the school hostages returned safe, alive and unharmed. “We will not succumb to blackmail by bandits and criminals who target innocent school students in the expectation of huge ransom payments,” he said.

Nigeria has seen several such attacks and kidnappings over the years, notably the abduction in April 2014 by jihadist group Boko Haram of 276 girls from the secondary school in Chibok in Borno state. More than 100 of those girls are still missing.

Last December, 344 students were abducted from the Government Science Secondary School Kankara in Katsina State. They were eventually released.