■ Some 300 Nigerian schoolboys kidnapped by Islamist rebels were freed.
More than 330 taken by jihadists of Boko Haram
KATSINA, Nigeria — Bleary, barefoot and apparently numbed by a week of captivity, more than 300 Nigerian schoolboys who were freed after being kidnapped in an attack on their school were welcomed by the governor of Katsina state Friday.
Reunions that are more celebratory and emotional likely will come when the boys are finally reunited with their families after being examined for any injuries.
The relatively quick release of the more than 330 boys took place after a prompt response by the government, which appears to have learned from earlier mass school abductions that did not have such a happy result.
This time, the government deployed forces quickly after the boys’ kidnapping, and the abductors rapidly found themselves surrounded, said Bulama Bukarti, an analyst on sub-saharan Africa at the Tony Blair Institute.
The students’ nightmare began on Dec. 11 when they were seized by men armed with AK-47 rifles from the all-boys Government Science Secondary School in Kankara, in northwestern Nigeria. They were marched through a forest and forced to lie in the dirt amid gun battles between their captors and the troops pursuing them.
Nigeria’s Boko Haram jihadist rebels claimed responsibility for the abduction, saying they attacked the school because they believe that Western education is un-islamic.
As the boys’ parents anxiously awaited any news, many in Nigeria and around the world were bracing for a long, drawn-out hostage situation. Many feared that the boys would be forced to become child soldiers for Boko Haram.
But the kidnapping reached an unexpectedly satisfactory climax when Katsina Gov. Aminu Bella Masari announced the release of 344 boys late Thursday night.
“I think we can say … we have recovered most of the boys, if not all of them,” he said.
Masari said no ransom was paid to secure the boys’ freedom. It’s not known whether other concessions were made.
Masari said the government will work with the police to increase security at the Kankara school and other schools. Only one policeman was working at the school when it was attacked, according to the students.