Nigerian Parents Finally Get a Chance to See Their Children Who Spent More Than 2 Weeks in Captivity

03/28/2024

Parents of more than 130 Nigerian schoolchildren who were rescued after more than two weeks in captivity said they saw them on March 27 and that they couldn’t hold back tears of joy during the long-awaited reunion.

The meeting, three days after the children were freed, took place at a government facility in the city of Kaduna, where the children are staying while receiving medical support, the parents and a teacher told The Associated Press.

The parents said they cried and danced as they hugged their children for the first time since March 7, when motorcycle-riding gunmen seized them from their school in the remote town of Kuriga in the northwestern Kaduna state, and forced them to march to nearby forests amid gunfire.

Their abduction was one of several mass school abductions that have shaken the West African nation in recent years. Authorities said no ransom was paid for the Kuriga children’s freedom but have provided no details of the rescue or said whether any suspected kidnappers were arrested.

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