LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) – Gunmen have released some of the children abducted from a school in northern Nigeria in May, some of whom were up to 5 years old, the school principal said on Thursday afternoon.
Abubakar Garba Alhassan told The Associated Press that the released students were heading to the state capital, Minna, but added that he could not confirm the exact number released.
Authorities have said 136 children were abducted along with several teachers when men armed with motorcycles attacked the Salihu Tanko Islamic School in the state of Niger. Other preschoolers were left behind as they could not keep up when the gunmen quickly moved the abductees into the woods.
Alhassan did not provide details of his release, but the parents of the students have struggled over the past few weeks to get the rescues demanded by their captors. There were no immediate comments from police at the Niger governor’s office.
The statement, however, came a day after local media quoted one of the parents as saying that six of the children had died in captivity.
More than 1,000 students have been taken by force from their schools during these attacks, according to a count of AP figures previously confirmed by police. Although most of the abductees have been released, at least 200 are still being held by their captors.
The government has been unable to stop the avalanche of kidnappings for rescue. As a result, many schools have been forced to close due to concerns about the risk of kidnapping.
After a kidnapping at a Kaduna state university earlier this year, gunmen demanded ransom of hundreds of thousands of dollars. They killed five more students to force the parents of the students to raise money and subsequently released 14 more.