Hundreds of Nigerian girls abducted last week from a boarding school have been released, officials said. An Associated Press reporter saw hundreds of girls dressed in light blue hijabs and barefoot sitting at the state Government House office in Gusau. On Saturday, 24 students, six staff and eight relatives were released after being abducted on February 17 from the Government Science College Kagara in Niger state. In December, more than 300 boys from a secondary school in Kankara, in north-western Nigeria, were taken and later released. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said last week the government would not “succumb to blackmail by bandits and criminals who target innocent school students in expectation of huge ransom payments”.

Source: The Irish Times March 02, 2021 07:52 UTC