Nigerian army rescues abducted Kaduna students

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria – The Nigerian army on Sunday rescued students and staff who were abducted by gunmen from a school in the country’s north earlier this month, the military said, days before a deadline to pay a $690,000 ransom.

The kidnapping of 287 students on March 7 in Kuriga, a dusty town in the northwestern state of Kaduna, was the first mass abduction in Africa’s most populous nation since 2021, when more than 150 students were taken from a high school in Kaduna.

Military spokesperson Major General Edward Buba said 137 hostages – 76 females and 61 males – were rescued in the early hours of Sunday in the neighboring state of Zamfara.

A security source said earlier the students had been freed in a forest and were being escorted to Kaduna’s capital for medical tests before being reunited with their families.