Nigeria: Kidnapped schoolboys return | DW News

A total of 344 kidnapped Nigerian schoolboys have been handed over to government security forces, Katsina state Governor Aminu Bello Masari told public broadcaster NTA on Thursday. More than 800 students were at the Government Science Secondary School, in the northwestern town of Kankara, when it was attacked by armed men on December 11. Hundreds escaped but more than 330 were thought to have been abducted. The militant Islamist group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the raid. Masari said most, if not all, the boys had been freed in neighboring Zamfara state. They will be medically examined and reunited with their families on Friday.

The schoolboys' release came shortly after a video started circulating online. It purportedly shows the Boko Haram Islamist militant group with some of the students who are begging security forces to leave the area. Local newspaper Katsina Post reported the abductors fled and abandoned the children after reaching an agreement with the government.

Should Boko Haram's involvement in the kidnapping, still disputed by some in the government, is confirmed, it would represent an expansion from the group's typical area of operation in Nigeria's northeast.

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