Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Reuters
Reuters
Politics

Kidnappers release students abducted in Nigeria - parents' group

Kidnappers have released the remaining 29 students they were holding captive after abducting them in March from a forestry college in Nigeria's Kaduna state, the head of the parents' association told Reuters.

Gunmen took 39 students from the school in northwest Nigeria on March 11 and later released 10 of them. The newly released students were with police and en route back to Kaduna city, Abdullahi Usman, chairman of the parents' association, said.

More than 700 people have been abducted from schools in northwest Nigeria since December in a rash of kidnappings for ransom in the volatile region.

Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai has repeatedly said his state government will not negotiate with "bandits", as the criminal gangs are known, or pay ransoms.

Usman said a ransom was paid for the students' release, but refused to say who had paid or how much.

(Reporting by Garba Muhammad in Kaduna; Additional reporting by Maiduguri newsroom; Writing by Libby George; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Alison Williams)

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.