Gunmen who kidnapped nearly three hundred students from a school in the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna have released the abductees, the authorities have announced.
The children were seized in the town of Kuriga earlier this month as the West African country grapples with kidnappings for ransom by armed gangs.
''I wish to announce that our Kuriga school children have been released,'' Kaduna state governor Uba Sani said in a statement on Sunday morning.
'Day of joy'
The victims were primary school pupils and secondary school students learning in the same facility when the gunmen stormed and opened fire.
The authorities have not given details of how the abductees were freed and whether a ransom was paid to the kidnappers.
But governor Sani said ''the abducted Kuriga school children are released unharmed.''
The Kaduna state government and the federal government devised ''strategies'' and coordinated the operations of the security agencies which ''eventually resulted in this successful outcome,'' he added.
''This is indeed a day of joy,'' the governor said.
Degrading criminals
''The Nigerian Army also deserves special commendation for showing that with courage, determination and commitment, criminal elements can be degraded and security restored in our communities,'' Sani explained.
The release of the Kuriga students comes a day after the Nigerian army rescued another group of abducted students and a woman in the northwestern state of Sokoto.
They were kidnapped from a Quranic school locally known as Tsangaya school on March 9, two days after the mass abduction of the Kuriga schoolchildren.
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