Gunmen who abducted more than 100 students in an attack on a Christian school in northwestern Nigeria in early July released ten more, a school spokesman said on Sunday.
After the mass abduction of 121 students on July 5 from the dormitories of the Baptist High School in Bethel Secondary School on the outskirts of Cantona, one hundred of them have been released or have been able to escape; another 21 remain in the hands of the perpetrators.
“The kidnappers released 10 more students after receiving the ransom they demanded, as in the case of the students who had previously been released,” said the Rev. Joseph Hayabb, without disclosing the amount owed.
“Eleven other students remain in captivity and we hope they will all be released the next time we reach an agreement with the perpetrators,” he said.
Police announced on Thursday that they had arrested three suspects in the abduction, which took place almost three months ago.
This was followed by a series of similar heavily armed gangs operating in northwestern and central Nigeria.
Gangs are looting villages, committing animal thefts and kidnappings of local celebrities, travelers and, more recently, students, in order to ransom.
They are based in the Rugo Forest, which stretches across the Nigerian states of Zamfara, Katsina, Kantuna and Niger.
They have no ideological motivation, unlike the jihadist organizations that are ravaging Africa’s most populous country.
Some 1,000 pupils and students have been abducted since December, when gangs began systematically targeting educational institutions.
Most have been released after negotiations, but hundreds remain in captivity in camps hidden in wooded areas.
Last month, nearly a hundred students of a private Muslim seminary abducted in western Nigeria in May were reunited with their parents.
Kidnappings of this kind were originally carried out by Boko Haram jihadists. The abduction of more than 200 young schoolgirls from their dormitories in Chibok in 2014 had caused outrage in Nigeria and internationally.
