KADUNA, Nigeria (AP) — Greater than 130 Nigerian schoolchildren rescued after greater than two weeks in captivity arrived Monday of their house state in northwestern Nigeria forward of their anticipated reunions with households, following the most recent in a collection of mass college abductions within the West African nation.
Six of the 137 college students stay in hospital, and one employees member who was kidnapped together with the kids died in captivity, navy officers mentioned.
The kids had been seized by motorcycle-riding gunmen at their college within the distant Kaduna state city of Kuriga on March 7, triggering a wide-ranging rescue operation. They had been rescued Sunday by the navy in a forest about 200 kilometers (greater than 120 miles) to the north in neighboring Zamfara state, although authorities have supplied no particulars of the rescue or mentioned whether or not any suspected kidnappers had been arrested.
The scholars, a lot of them beneath the age of 10, had been introduced Monday to the Kaduna State Authorities Home with contemporary haircuts and newly sewn garments and footwear — their first change of clothes since their abduction.
The six youngsters nonetheless in hospital will probably be made obtainable “as quickly because the docs have licensed them match sufficient,” Maj. Gen. Mayirenso Saraso, a navy chief in Kaduna, mentioned whereas handing them over to the federal government.
Faculty authorities initially had advised the state authorities {that a} whole of 287 college students had been kidnapped throughout the assault. Nonetheless, Kaduna Gov. Uba Sani mentioned solely 137 are confirmed to have been seized.
“We’re right here in the present day fortunately and celebrating the secure return of our youngsters. They are going to quickly be with their household and their mother and father,” Gov. Sani mentioned.
Their mother and father weren’t obtainable to obtain them and authorities didn’t enable the schoolchildren to talk to reporters. The Related Press couldn’t attain households in Kuriga city, which doesn’t have cellphone service.
However one dad or mum on Sunday spoke of their sleepless nights as they waited for the return of the kids.
“We had been traumatized all through the absence of our youngsters. Our kids had been away within the bush, with no meals, and no good water,” mentioned Jubril Kuriga, whose 9-year-old daughter was among the many youngsters kidnapped.
No less than 1,400 college students have been kidnapped from Nigerian colleges for the reason that 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by Boko Haram militants in Borno state’s Chibok village shocked the world. In recent times, abductions have been concentrated within the nation’s conflict-battered northwestern and central areas, the place dozens of armed teams usually goal villagers and vacationers for ransom.