Kidnappers free 14 students abducted in Kaduna state

Officials say that kidnappers have released the remaining 14 students who had been held captive after being abducted last month from a northern Nigerian university. It was not immediately clear if the hostages were released in exchange for a ransom payment, reports Al Jazeera English.

Armed groups have repeatedly attacked schools and universities in northwest Nigeria in the last few months, abducting more than 700 students for ransom since December. The inability of security forces to crack down on kidnapping gangs has sparked protests against perceived government inaction.

Armed men had stormed Greenfield University in the northwestern state of Kaduna on 20 April. They killed one person during the raid and, in the days after the attack, murdered five of those they took. “Fourteen of the abducted students of the university have been freed,” Simeon Nwakacha, pro-chancellor of Greenfield University, told Reuters news agency by phone on Saturday 29 May. He said the 14 were the remaining students being held.
Full report on the MSN site