Nigerian schoolgirls freed eight days after mass kidnapping

Nduka Orjinmo, Bloomberg News on Nov 26, 2025

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Two dozen students abducted from a school in Nigeria were freed after more than a week in captivity, but hundreds of others seized in separate incidents remain missing as the West African nation reels from a spate of mass kidnappings.

The secondary-school pupils who were captured in the northwestern Kebbi state on Nov. 17 were released on Tuesday, President Bola Tinubu said, without providing further details. One student escaped after gunmen attacked the school, killing a teacher and injuring another staff member.

Tinubu said he had ordered cordons to be erected around forests in three states where recent attacks occurred, with the air force to maintain continuous surveillance over the most remote areas. More than 250 students, most thought to be younger than 10, who were taken from a Catholic school in Niger state on Nov. 22 are still in captivity.

The mass kidnappings have ramped up pressure on Tinubu, after his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump claimed that Christians are being persecuted in the West African country and accused the authorities of failing to take action.