MINNA, Nigeria (AP) — A total of 100 of the schoolchildren abducted from a Nigerian Catholic school last month and released over the weekend were hosted at a government-organized ceremony on Monday, many of them looking lost but relieved.
Details surrounding their release were not made public and the government has not said if any ransom — common in such abductions — was paid.
At least 303 schoolchildren were seized in Niger state together with 12 of their teachers when gunmen attacked St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri community on Nov. 21. Fifty escaped in the hours that followed and at least 150 are still held, together with the teachers.
The freed schoolchildren arrived at the Niger Government House in the state capital of Minna in several buses accompanied by military trucks. They were then received by officials who hugged and shook hands with some, before posing with them in front of cameras.
The Niger state governor, Mohammed Bago, said health workers and experts would “thoroughly examine” the children before they are returned to their parents in Papiri.
“To those who have been praying, please continue to pray,” Bago told a gathering of government and security officials. “We hope to recover the remaining students who are still in captivity.”
Most of the freed children — between the age …