The Nigerian government announced the release of the 13 people Saturday in a statement. It claimed that they were freed after a series of negotiations authorised by President Muhammadu Buhari and ‘facilitated’ by the ICRC. The three university lecturers released on Saturday were part of an NNPC team on a mission to find commercial quantities of crude oil in the Lake Chad basin. The vice-chancellor of UNIMAID Professor Ibrahim Njodi said five members of staff from the university – two lecturers, two technologists and a driver – were among those killed. Shortly after their kidnap, the three men appeared in a video released by the insurgents, pleading for a government intervention.

Source: The Guardian February 11, 2018 09:11 UTC