Friday, 18 December 2020_Nigeria’s homegrown Takfiri terrorist group of Boko Haram has released more than 300 schoolboys less than a week after kidnapping them in a stark reminder of its 2014 abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls.
The boys, who had been spirited away from the Kankara Government Science Secondary School in Katsina State in northern Nigeria, were released on Thursday.
State governor Aminu Bello Masari said 344 boys had been handed over to security agencies.
However, many more are feared to still be in captivity, with some accounts alleging that the kidnapping involved upwards of 500 schoolers. Some who managed to escape the abductors have also alleged that some of their classmates died during a jungle trek that followed the kidnapping.
The freed boys were last seen being driven back home to receive medical attention.
They are expected to meet President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday. The head of state has said the boys “endured significant hardships in the course of their ordeal.”