At least 137 of nearly 300 Nigerian children abducted more than two weeks ago from their school in the northwestern state of Kaduna were released on Sunday, the West African nation’s military said. An earlier statement from the government suggested that all the students were freed. Motorcycle-riding gunmen invaded the Kuriga school on March 7 and marched the children into the forests before security forces could arrive, as terrified families watched helplessly.
School authorities said a total of 287 students were kidnapped during the attack, at least 100 of them are aged 12 or younger. At least 1,400 students have been kidnapped from Nigerian schools since 2014, when Boko Haram militants seized hundreds of schoolgirls from Borno state’s Chibok village. In recent years, abductions have been concentrated in the country’s northwestern and central regions, where dozens of armed groups often target villagers and travelers for ranso