About 100 children who were abducted from a Catholic school in central Nigeria last month have been freed.
They arrived in the Niger state capital, Minna, in a fleet of minibuses escorted by military vans and armoured vehicles, and were received by Governor Umar Bago.
Details about their release remain unclear, including whether it was secured through negotiation or by force, and whether any ransoms were paid.
Last month, more than 250 students and 12 staff were kidnapped from St Mary’s Catholic school in Papiri, the latest in a wave of mass abductions.
The BBC has learned that the rescued students will be transported to the school, located more than 300km (186 miles) from the state capital, on Tuesday where they will be reunited with their families.
The governor of neighbouring Nasarawa state, Abdullahi Sule, told local media that the federal government had played a key role in securing their release, adding that the behind-the-scenes efforts could not be disclosed for security reasons.
Last week, National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu visited Papiri and met a delegation led by Bishop Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, assuring them the children would soon be rescued and reunited with their families.
About 153 students and 12 staff members are still with the unknown gunmen.
Schools and places of worship have increasingly been targeted in the latest wave of attacks in north and central Nigeria.
The attack on St Mary’s, on 21 November, was preceded by mass kidnappings just days earlier: on 18 November, two people were killed and 38 abducted in an attack on the Christ Apostolic Church in Kwara state, and a day before that, two were killed and 25 Muslim students abducted from Government Girls’ Secondary School in Kebbi state.
All those taken in the Kwara and Kebbi attacks have since been freed.
Last week gunmen abducted at least 20 people in two separate attacks – at a newly established church in central Kogi state, where a pastor, his wife and some worshipers were taken, and in the mostly Muslim northern Sokoto state, where a bride and her bridesmaids were among those kidnapped.
It is not clear who is behind these kidnappings – most analysts believe they are carried out by criminal gangs seeking ransom payments. However, a presidential spokesman earlier told the BBC that the government believes they are the work of jihadist groups.
The paying of ransoms has been made illegal in Nigeria in an attempt to cut the supply of funds to the kidnap gangs but it is widely believed that in many cases money is still handed over.
Nigeria’s security crisis attracted the international spotlight last month after US President Donald Trump threatened to send over troops if the government “continues to allow the killing of Christians”.
Nigerian officials and analysts say that members of all faiths are victims of the violence and kidnappings and say it is not true that Christians are being targeted.
